4 ways to start being happier

Featured Article by Martin Reilly:

4 Things You Can Do Today To Start Being Happier

Hi, it’s Martin Reilly again…

All that any of us really wants at the end of the day is to have a happy and fulfilling life. For each of us, happiness comes from a slightly different place. What makes you happy may not be entirely what makes someone else happy, but at the root of it, all the reasons are quite similar.

People are most happy when worry is removed and they are left to be free from stress. Fortunately, there are a few different things you can do that will up your happiness factor.

Curious on how to make this happen in your life? 
Try these five steps and see if they don’t just make a big difference in your day-to-day living.

1) Doing Good For Others

The first way to start feeling happier? Make others happier. That’s right. The more you do for other people, the more it’ll shine back on you. Ever notice how after you do a good deed you are feeling a lot better? Your mood improves and you may even notice that better things come your way as well.

Ever notice how you when you are having a bad day, everything seems to be bad? Nothing goes your way? Remember this. If you feel like you are having a string of bad luck and nothing is going well for you, change it yourself. Don’t wait for it to change on its own. Do something good for someone else and you may just reverse your outlook.

2) Practicing Gratitude

Another way that will help you instantly feel happier is to practice gratitude as often as you can. Each day before you rush off to work, think about three things that you are thankful for that day. Write them down if you want, and try to come up with three new things each and every day – if you can.

When you do this, you will reshape how you think about things. Instead of focusing on all the negativity in your life or whatever is bothering you or stressing you out, you will be thinking about the good. This has a powerful effect on your overall outlook.

3) Slowing Down

One of the biggest reasons many of us are not feeling as happy as we could be is because we are all about the go-go-go. We rush off from one place to another and before we know it, the day is over and we hardly recall any special moments from it.

Start slowing down and taking the time to smell the roses, so to speak. This will go a long way towards helping you lead a more fulfilling life.

4) Reminiscing To Combat Stress

If you want to truly achieve a state of happiness, it’s important that you aren’t living too much in the future, but instead, staying in the present as best you can.

Stress is one of the biggest sabotages of that. When you think about what stress really is – worrying about some future event – you are never living in the moment when you are stressed.

Therefore, a good way to achieve greater happiness is to find ways to reduce your stress level. One method of doing this is to actually go back to the past, in a sense, by reminiscing about positive events that have occurred in your life. Now, obviously, you don’t want to spend all your time thinking about this and failing to live in the present, but on days where stress is getting the best of you, think of a relaxed, happy time. Daydream about it for a while and see if it doesn’t take your mind off what’s stressing you.

So, there you have a few simple yet highly effective techniques that you can use to start feeling better about yourself. Remember that happiness is not a switch that you can turn on and off but something that you may have to work towards, in a sense. If you aren’t feeling it right now, make a few changes so that you will in the future.

To your healthy mind and body,
Martin Reilly

P.S. Do you have any happiness tricks you’d like to share? What helps you feel better on days you’re down?

Today’s Affirmation: I am choosing to overcome any negative thoughts that may cross my mind today. Just because I think them does not mean they have to affect my mood or how I feel.