10 Ways to Increase Your Happiness

10 Ways To Increase Your Happiness

Life can be challenging and we all have times that effect our mood and sense of wellbeing. There are however many tools we can use to help us recalibrate and change the way we feel. Here are 10 ways to increase your happiness when life feels less than enjoyable.

 

1. Develop self-awareness

The golden key to inner happiness, I believe, is actually in self-awareness (clear consciousness of our own thoughts and feelings – as an observer of them) and presence. Without self-awareness, we cannot see what’s truly causing our unhappiness, at the level of our own thoughts and feelings. In fact, we cannot even see that it is ourselves and not someone else who creates and is responsible for them and we fall under the illusion that others or events are responsible for our unhappiness and stress. Therefore, learning how to become more self-aware and present, as well as cultivating that skill in your daily life is life-changing (and i feel the most vital first component in improving your happiness and your success)

How to do this?  I’ve included a relaxing exercise in the free download on my website homepage that you can access here:https://joshrimptoncoaching.com

Learning simple breath work techniques and meditation are also very beneficial.

Simple additional ways we can cultivate more happiness within ourselves and in our day to day lives include:

2.  Get outside in nature

Walking, jogging, cycling, doing some gardening, meeting a friend in a park and tuning into the beauty of what’s around us. Yes, I’m sure we all know this helps us …but how often do we actually do it?  Simply being in nature can clear negative emotions, promote wellbeing and increase your happiness; it also raises our energy and vibration to manifest and create in our lives. What’s not to like about that!

2.  Practice gratitude for what you have and recognise the abundance already in your life.

For example, you could write:

  • I am grateful to feel the sun on my face this morning
  • I am grateful for my health
  • I am grateful for all the good people in my life

Am sure you get the idea and the potential for this list is practically endless; it can be added to or re-written daily.  As soon as we become more conscious of the good things in our life we naturally feel happier. Just focusing on what we are grateful for has great power in negating negative thoughts and feelings, cultivate happier ones and raising our vibration to manifest what we want in our lives. It’s well worth adopting as a habit.

3.  Eat healthily and drinking in moderation

Both unhealthy food and alcohol can have a detrimental affect on the mind as well as the body; the opposite is true of healthy foods that feed our cells, bodies and minds positively.

4. Connect with friends, family and those that make you feel good

Taking time to connect with others can have a profound effect on our wellbeing. We all have times when we don’t feel at our best and benefit from some support or just to get out of our heads at times; a phone call, virtual or physical meet up can help you do that and increase your happiness.

5.  Find enjoyment in the small things / Integrate Daily ‘Bliss Points’

This is a great technique I learnt from a coach I worked with. Bliss points are quite simply time allocated into your daily life to enjoy and appreciate small specific things you love. I’ve given you some examples below of some of mine – what could yours be?

  • Starting/Finishing the day with a hot shower/bath and using my favourite products with an aroma I love
  • 15 min+ daily exercise /yoga
  • Slowly and consciously savoring a good cup of coffee/ tea/ juice/piece of chocolate/ fruit/ meal
  • 15 mins  quiet time meditating or reflecting on what I am grateful for
  • A walk with the dog in the park / and or a short time playing with her!
  • Taking 15 mins to write down/ visualize my current dreams and goals as if I’ve already achieved them
  • Giving and receiving a great hug! Or taking time to visualise one– which has the same fee- good impact
  • Listening to 15mins + of my favourite music as I work, relax
  • Spending 15 mins + reading something that’s not work related
  • Picking up the phone and speaking to someone I like connecting with or calling an old friend I have not spoken to in a while
  • Watching a short funny video

Even enjoying one or two of your own bliss points a day has the potential of increasing your happiness and quality of life – why not write your list now and start tomorrow?

6. Be Kind to Yourself

This one is important. If you’re prone to giving yourself a hard time, being self critical or self-judgmental it’s not going to have a positive effect on how you feel. Take a moment to talk to a younger version of yourself, the 4 year old say who is unhappy and be kind and supportive. You’ll be surprised how this practice can change how you feel.

7. Let go of what no longer serves you

Be it a job, a relationship or something else – if it’s been making you unhappy over a period of time…Let It Go. Sometimes that takes a physical act, like handing in our notice or breaking up with someone; at other times it’s a mental act that requires us to let go of blame or practice forgiveness in order to feel inner peace.

8. Take positive steps to enrich your life and move towards your goals and dreams

Learning something new, starting a new hobby you enjoy or improving your skill set can only serve to enhance your life and make you feel more positive. Clearly writing down/visualising goals and dreams you’d like to achieve in your life, a clear plan on how you can get there and taking action will increase both current and potential future happiness.

9. Connect to your breathe, slow it down, observe it and find your way to come back to the present moment

There’s a reason why yoga and meditation is powerful; one of the first lessons learnt are connection to the breath, slowing it down and observing it.  In other words, connecting to presence, slowing the brain waves and the brains (often hyper) activity. If we are not present and mentally reflecting on past events that caused us unhappiness, sadness can arise. If we are thinking about the future, fear and anxiety may appear.  When we are mentally just in the present moment however,  the mind is not active doing either of these and we can rest in a calmer, more peaceful place.

10. Engage in random acts of kindness

Giving feely without the expectation of any return makes us feel good! Be it our time, our money or our experience, giving is extremely powerful in its ability to raise our happiness and our energy vibration. Simple ways to do this include: holding a door open or helping someone in some other way, giving an honest compliment, giving our time to a good cause, teaching someone something to help them, listening deeply to another  and so on.

To Summarise

So, to summarise, there are many ways you can increase your happiness levels including being in nature, connecting to others, practising gratitude, being kind to yourself, connecting to your breathe, developing self-awareness and presence, moving towards your goals and dreams, integrating daily ‘bliss points’ and practising random acts of kindness.

AND to you can download a free exercise here to help support you in doing that. www.joshrimptoncoaching.com.  Please feel free to share this post to with anyone that might benefit  – or to contribute other ways that you use to increase your happiness, in the comments below.