These days it seems like we are always in a hurry and either need to get somewhere or are already late for a meeting or an appointment. This tends to make people stressed out and unhappy. However, if we choose to simplify our lives, then we can end up a lot less stressed and happier. Here are 10 ways to simplify your life and become happier:
1. Get involved in a hobby or a topic that challenges you
Believe it or not, there are good forms of stress that we need in our lives to keep us motivated and living a happy life. For instance, doing something like starting a new hobby helps the brain to be challenged, and helps us unwind and engulf ourselves in the moment of fun, adventure or even the mystery and challenge of something like doing a puzzle or crossword.
Perhaps you would rather do something physical like sports or exercise, as that too can be good for both the body and the mind. It really doesn’t matter as long as it is something you enjoy that helps you to forget about your problems for a while.
2. Help others be happier
It also helps our own well-being and happiness if we help someone else to be happier. For instance, giving gifts is both fun and rewarding. It makes us feel happy to bring joy to a friend or a loved one. It doesn’t have to be something expensive or even something that costs money at all. Some gift ideas include things as simple as a love note placed in their lunch box, a handmade item like a scarf or baked goods, or maybe that book they have been wanting to read. Doing these things make us and the gift receiver happy.
3. Don’t listen to dream crushers.
If you have a dream, only share it with people who will support your efforts and don’t listen to any dream crushers who keep telling you that you can’t do something. If you really are passionate about your dream, then keep striving to fulfill it and that will bring happiness into your life.
4. Stay less glued to the media
Find time every day to unplug yourself from all the bad news in the world. Turn off the TV and all your electronic gadgets for a specified amount of time, like an hour or two every day. Use this as time just for you in some other more relaxing fashion whether it is taking a nap, reading a book, etc. It’s your time to de stress and unwind.
5. Stop comparing yourself to everyone else
Keeping up with the Joneses is not a required activity. If you step back and really think about what you need in your life or how you want to live, what makes you happy is much more important than whether or not you are living exactly like someone else. Life isn’t a contest. Live at your own pace.
6. Complain less
People seem to always be complaining about something and usually it involves things we can’t even control anyway, like the price of gas or whether it rains too much or too little, etc. Try a new plan. For the next week don’t complain about something you usually complain about. If you catch yourself doing it then the whole week has to start over. If you are successful, you will see a turn for the better in your amount of stress.
7. Focus on the way you want to feel.
You will begin to become happier and more successful the minute you decide to be. Knowing how you actually want to feel is the most potent form of clarity that you can have. Generating these feelings is the most powerfully creative thing you can do with your life.
Your thoughts create your reality: A positive context leads to positive actions, thoughts, and feelings, which gradually lead to positive results. This mindset is the magic ingredient that helps you persevere in the face of challenges, setbacks, pain, and even personal injury.
8. Maintain a flexible, constructive perspective.
Forget all the reasons it won’t work and figure out the one good reason it will. It’s possible that you won’t get the exact results you had anticipated, but that’s OK – it’s still progress as long as you learn from the results you do get. And perhaps with your newfound understanding you’ll discover a way to achieve even better results than you had originally thought possible.
9. Spend less time on the Internet
The Internet is a fantastic tool, but too much of a good thing is a bad idea. You need to have face time with your friends, family and even your co-workers. Instead of sending your coworker an email or text about something you need when they are right down the hall, take a walk down to their office to discuss it. It builds morale and helps you learn to deal with people in person as email can be misunderstood at times since you can’t read their emotions.
10. Have only people you love in your life
Get rid of any toxic relationships in your life. If you are with someone that is always making you unhappy, putting you down, etc., then that isn’t good for your physical or emotional health. It’s time to tell them you don’t want the relationship any longer so you can move on to a happier state of mind.
11. Eliminate Clutter
Another happiness deflector is having too much clutter in your life. This can be actual physical issue of having way too much stuff that you really don’t need or it can mean having emotional clutter that is hurting you mentally. Evaluate your situation and if you have things in your house that you haven’t touched in the last year, then sell them, have a yard sale and make some cash! And if you have too much on your mind, then make a plan to talk to someone that can help you get rid of the stress and worry of whatever is causing it.
12. Be thankful
Above all, be thankful for your life and the things in it. You are the only you and you should live your life well by doing what’s right, helping others and thanking God or whatever deity you believe in for your life.
As you simplify your life, the laws of the universe will be simpler; solitude will not be solitude, poverty will not be poverty, nor weakness weakness.
Henry David Thoreau
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