Life gives you many options to choose from; which is comprised of both good and not so good. You come across many ups and downs in life. One of the most paramount and compelling choices you face is whether or not to let bad or unexpected things get you down and make you feel unhappy. It is all about how you deal with it and take further steps, on how to live a happy life.
Your choices define your character as to what kind of person you are and the quality of life you live.
“Bad things do happen; how I respond to them defines my character and the quality of my life. I can choose to sit in perpetual sadness, immobilized by the gravity of my loss, or I can choose to rise from the pain and treasure the most precious gift I have—life itself. “ – Walter Anderson
How to live a happy life
If you want to be happy regardless of what is happening around you, then here is how you can do it by making 10 right choices in your life:
1. Understand your mind and inner self.
Sit in solitude and introspect about yourself as to what are you looking for in your life. Try to find out the answers to these questions:
- What is your idea on how to live a happy life?
- Do you feel a sense of balance in your life?
- What keeps you motivated to move forward?
- How can you bring some change and break the monotony of your life?
- What are the negative things that make you upset and how can you exclude it or mitigate its effects on your mind?
Try to analyze which area of your life that is causing the void, be it your family relationship, love relationship, friends, career, finance, anger issues, self-esteem, self-motivation, or the aims and goals of your life.
I am sure you will attain some insight by contemplating on these aspects of your life.
2. Socialize.
Humans are social beings, and having close friends to mingle, chit-chat and share can make us happier. We need contact with others with whom we can share our interests and opinions, even if it’s entirely new to us.
Yes, we at one point in time may feel the need of someone with whom we can confide our secrets, share our feelings, opinions, sadness, and happiness.
Strong friendships and companionship create a feeling of belonging and can help buffer life’s challenges. It’s about having meaningful relationships — even if it’s just with one or two people. Reach out to them and make your life light and lively.
Research has shown that one way of elevating your mood is to work on building social connections. Interacting with others boosts feelings of well-being and decreases feelings of depression.
Benefits are abundant for socializing – stress reduction, a feeling of importance, and high self-esteem are just a few of the benefits to name them.
With more social support you tend to live longer than those who are more isolated, and this is true even after accounting for your overall level of health. You will enjoy better mental health and may live longer.
Share these beautiful quotes on life and let others know your happiness in life status.
Here is what you can do few things to socialize:
- Participate in a neighborhood or community group.
- Play a group sport like lawn tennis, badminton, golf, or basketball.
- Plan a weekend getaway with your friends.
- Invite friends or relatives over for coffee or tea.
- Play cards or board games with others.
- Exercise with a friend by walking, swimming, or going to the gym together. Know how exercising regularly can lead to healthy living.
- Use video calling to catch up with family and friends from a distance.
- Walk through your neighborhood and make a point to stop and say hello to people you meet.
- Join a new activity or something challenging.
Being around people who have the same interests helps people enjoy life even more. Laughing and creating new memories is the best medicine to stay away from thinking and focusing on the negatives in life.
3. Explore yourself, be creative.
The greatest and most important adventure or you can say the puzzle of your lives is discovering who you are. It’s about introspecting yourselves in context to the past experiences of your life and the life you are living currently. Trying to find about your very own self is an unselfish process and is the root of everything you do in life.
Unresolved traumas, pains, and challenges from your past make you act the way you act today. The atmosphere in which you grew up in has a huge role to play as to how you act like adults.
You often keep our inner self masked in front of others consciously or unconsciously as you never want to be looked as weak, vulnerable or defeated. You tend to behave or present yourselves with what people expect from you.
But you know, sometimes, it’s worth shedding the layers that do not serve you in your lives and don’t reflect who you are. Just try once doing it, and feel the heavy load lifted from your shoulders and you will know how to live a happy life.
By engaging in this type of thinking and willing to face the memories that arise, you gain invaluable insights into our behavior.
- You will start accepting yourselves the way you are.
- You will start consciously separating the more harmful influences from your history and actively alter your behavior to reflect how you think and feel and how you choose to be in this world.
- Knowing what you want is fundamental to finding yourselves. Recognizing your wants and desires helps you to be more creative and original in our approach towards life. You must welcome the change that leads to growth.
4. Create your own memories.
When we sit in solitude, our mind starts retrieving memorable moments from past experiences of life. The experiences which we gather throughout the journey of life add to our memories.
- Sweet memories can be a source of immense happiness for you. At the same time, the bitter ones can cause you deep pain. It is only up to you whether you want it to make it sweet or bitter. Of course, few situations may not be in your control but you should always look forward to making each day fulfilling and a memorable one.
- Indulge in activities that give you pleasure. How about planning a weekend getaway to some exciting place with your family? How about going for mountain trekking or camping with your friends? Or simply going on a travel expedition on your own? Sounds thrilling, isn’t it? Go ahead and create your memories.
5. Give your life a purpose
Maintaining a sense of meaning in life is essential for survival. To find yourself, you must all seek out your sense of purpose. This means separating your point of view, values, and principles from other people’s expectations of you.
Hunt for what truly matters to you, what makes you feel contended, what motivates you to move ahead, and then following to achieve what you believe in. Finding yourself and how to be happy in life, therefore, gives meaning and purpose to your life.
6. Learn to Love yourself
Do you love yourself enough? Do you pay attention to what are your desires and what makes you happy? We often tend to put forth the happiness and desires of our loved ones leaving ours’ behind.
In the journey of life, you forget living for yourself and keep going as it is, only to realize later in life that you never listened to your heart. In order to spread the love around you, it is very important to love yourself first.
Self-love builds self-esteem. If your self-esteem is high, you will be highly motivated to achieve your goals and dreams in life. And this in turn will bring happiness in your life.
7. Spend time with your family
There is no bigger happiness than being close to your loved ones. What do you say? Spending quality time with your companion, children and your parents make your life complete and fulfilling.
- Engage in activities like watching movies, playing indoor and outdoor games, weekend getaways, etc with your family.
- Sometimes just chit-chatting does wonders and can create deep bonding among one another. Being transparent and expressive to each other in sharing your thoughts, joys and sorrows will generate the feeling of togetherness at times of thick and thin.
- Your family is your strength, make the most of it by spending joyful time together.
- Never let anger issues come in between as it will cause severe damages to the relationships with your loved ones.
8. Let go off your past baggage
No human being is perfect. You might have come across certain testing times in your life where there is a minute difference between the right and the wrong.
- Something right for you might not be right for the other person and eventually, you might end up hurting him or her. You might have committed such mistakes, consciously, or subconsciously. But later when you have the realization of it, it leaves you with a heavy load of guilt, grief, and scar to your heart and soul.
- Well, not only the guilt of past mistakes, you hold on your pain, anger, and resentment related to your past experiences. This affects the quality of your life in the present. It is very important to forgive yourself and just let go of your past baggage.
- It all depends on how you take it. There is always another perspective to look at it. May be those mistakes helped you and guided you to move towards a better direction in your life. Just be sure to learn and grow from those mistakes and become a better person. That’s what truly matters.
Forgiving yourself and learning from your past mistakes will inspire you to move ahead and help you how to live a happy life, on a lighter note.
9. Don’t crib for the situations which are out of control
You might have stumbled upon certain unwanted circumstances where you might have no control over it. Despite your dedicated efforts, it might not have been possible for you to salvage the situation and you were left feeling shattered.
- You have to understand that it’s all a part and parcel of life. Just try to be happy thinking that you did your best at that time, in that particular situation and the rest was beyond your reach.
- Focus on positives and celebrate your small victories.
Read these beautiful quotes on life to keep yourself inspired, when you feel low and start afresh.
10. Set your motto “Simple living is happy living.”
Embrace the beauty of life by keeping your life simple. If you want to be truly happy, simple living is the mantra for it.
- Declutter from your life, be it people, who no longer serve you any purpose. Let them go, you allowed in your life, who are actually making you unhappy and are consistently bringing you down.
- Appreciate simple things. “When was the last time you felt the rain on your skin and appreciated the coolness it gives?” “When did you last enjoy the beauty of nature around you.
- Avoid comparing your life with others. Cherish what you are blessed with instead of craving for something which others have; which you might not need it.
Learn to be happy and contented by keeping your life simple.
Make these choices into your life and see if it makes any difference. Hope it brings happiness in your life.
Krishna is a Management graduate in Human Resource. She is an avid reader, knowledge seeker, and an adoring mother of two lovely kids.