My 5 Simple Ways to Boost Happiness

After browsing some biographies of successful people, I wondered that they really aren’t happier even thought they own fortune, respect, reputation, family, belongings that other people might hardly earn in their whole lives. Through reading books about happiness, I understand that happiness appears from within:

1. Choose to be happy – It is a daily choice indeed, and the decision maker is ourselves. Being happy is a habit which requires intention and constant commitment for practicing it. Every morning when I wake up, I start a day by calling: “Wow! It’s a brand new day!” For me, happiness is an everyday choice, life is too short to stay depressed. So, we need to stop looking for happiness, but start living it. Another problem is we have internalized negative thoughts in our minds, so we should make some simple changes to throw away these old thoughts for happy effects on ourselves.

2. Read inspirational books – If you ever read a book or a quote about successful people, you may feel “I think I can do that too”. These books and quotes give us a little motivation and encouragement which we need them at different points in our lives. By learning from other people’s perspectives, we can transform the way we perceive our own abilities and possibilities of the future. These real stories give us courage and perseverance to face challenges, loss, misfortune, sickness; and provide some guidance to push us towards our potential. I like to read these stories and jot down some interesting quotes that give me power and worth sharing to my friends.

3. Appreciate what we have – Sometimes, we are too focused on what we want and ignoring what we have owned. Giving thanks to the universe, to life, to our parents, friends, teachers, or to whoever we know or don’t know is a good way to bring us back to remind us how lucky we are to be here at this moment. There are many unfortunate cases happening out there every moment, and we should appreciate things we own, people we love, belief we embrace and words we share. Making some small experiences into appreciating moment are good for us to feel pleasure, such as aware of a sunny day, wearing a new shirt or watched a comedy. Through this way, our brain trained to be more conscious about the beauty of small moments and turn these experiences into wonderful memories.

4. Give someone a hand – Giving some advice and helping others are good ways to increase our sense of satisfaction. Doing something and caring for someone else creates stronger emotional connections among people. Sometimes, other people perhaps need a little encouragement to lift themselves up from apathy or failure, so we can listen and accompany them. Giving not only provide a healthy boost to their self confidence, but we also repaid with joy and life satisfaction. Our happiness comes from a natural sense of accomplishment by helping others achieve their goals and fulfill their dreams.

5. Spend time with others and cultivate our inner peace – Maintain close connections with family and friends give us love, support, motivation, satisfaction and significance, which are essential for our happiness. By broadening our social networks, we feel secure and it gives a sense of belonging. However, sometimes, we need to stay alone and be mindful when we feel stressed or uncomfortable. So, keeping ourselves in a silent mode gives us time to explore our inner thoughts to find our initial inner peace. Writing a blog is a way to help myself being aware of my inner voice and sharing my perspective to other friends.

Happiness is a choice. You can choose to be happy. There’s going to be stress in life, but it’s your choice whether you let it affect you or not. ~ Valeria Bertinelli

What do you think?

What other great steps have you ever taken to make yourself happy in your life? If you feel this post is useful for you, please share it.

~ Photo credit (modified): jill111 / Pixabay / CC BY-NC