Potentially, this might be one of the most complicated questions that you can ask yourself, or someone can ask of you.
Are you happy?
And it feels like it might be a loaded question, and it’s complicated too. Because if you get asked at 4:30 in the morning after countless airport delays, and you’re going to miss a life-changing business-changing meeting, then you might say no. But if you made the flight, had a coffee in hand, and were going to be on time-then your answer would probably be yes.
Like most emotions, happiness is a flexible emotion. And we hinge much of what we do on it. So it makes sense that we really would like to discover more happiness for ourselves.
And it is important when you take this journey that you understand that happiness means different things to different people. For some happiness is having the perfect hairstyle, a weekend of celebration had a great time. For others, it is a Saturday morning, in bed, reading the paper with a hot coffee. And for others, it is knowing that you have a Bahamas real estate that you can escape to any time you feel like it.
There are, however, some very simple things that can apply to almost anybody’s life. And they can help you anathema contentment in the life that you lead.
Boundaries
It is an unfortunate truth that not everyone is going to show up for you when you need them. And it doesn’t matter how many times you have shown up for them in the past, it might not be a two-way thing. Think of all the times you helped when you knew something was outside of your comfort zone or was going to stretch it in a way that you couldn’t manage.
If you haven’t really thought about what your boundaries are, then think back to a previous situation in your life where you have experienced people that have taken advantage of your good night chat. Think about how it makes you feel, and make a mental note of the things that you actually wish you hadn’t done.
This will help you to begin to lay the foundations of your boundaries and learn to stick with them.
Nature
Nature and humans are designed to be close. We actually simply can’t do without it. In fact, it is one of the most likely things you will find that an interior designer suggests for offices to increase contentment and productivity within the workspace. You should take that knowledge and apply it to your own home.
Look around where you are sitting right now; can you see lush greenery, or are you immediately feeling like perhaps you could actually benefit from having plants in the room? This actually isn’t just about plants, either. Well, many people enjoy a more modern industrial metal feel, open haps, even a minimalist design; natural products give it a soft edge. This could be as simple as adding artwork of photos of natural landscapes, candles, or other scented materials that smell like the woodlands, the ocean, or even fruit and flowers.
Think about any time that you’ve headed to the beach, and you could sit and listen to the waves crashing on the shore for hours. Or when you’re walking through the woods or a park or someone that you love and the branches and twigs are cracking beneath your feet. That sense of peace, calm, and happiness is something that you can bring into your home. But you could head out into nature more too.
Positivity
You need to speak positively to yourself. And positively about the things that impact you. These are often called affirmations. And when people practice self-affirmations, they will have increased activity in the area of the brain that processes your self-worth.
And while it might feel a little bit weird, the easiest way for you to get into the habit of those positive affirmations is starting by saying one every morning into the mirror. Start with something that you want to build confidence in. If it’s that you wish you were more assertive in your emails, for example. Simply say to yourself in the mirror today:
“I’m going to be more assertive in my emails.”
Always try to say “I am,” because this is confirmation of what you are already. You can start with smaller things like I am loved. Repeat every morning to yourself in the mirror until you believe it. And it is very important that you repeat until you don’t have that underlying cringed feeling people off to have when they first start with the affirmations. As soon as you get comfortable, you should add more in.
Remember that these affirmations are all about giving you a positive start to your morning, but not only that, they will help you build confidence, which will last a lifetime.
Plans
It is often the case when we do not have anything to look forward to. We can feel that we aren’t being very productive and that we actually don’t have a purpose at all. So it is really important that we create a purpose for ourselves. This means you need to make plans outside of work and other commitments.
Think about the goals that you want to achieve in life or even a hobby that you want to improve on.
It might be that you want to learn how to make playing animals, or it could be that you want to create an Intyre online course. Get serious about those goals, and make space and time for you to be able to achieve that.
It is important when you’re setting goals to try to set yourself deadlines too, Parkinson‘s law means that once we have a deadline set, we are more likely to achieve our goals in that time period.
Of course, these things are just the tip of the iceberg, and there are so many more beautiful ways you can discover what makes you happy, and implement them into your everyday life.
But like everything, these habits will take time to build. Start with something small and work your way up to the big ones.