Happiness is a habit, one that you can develop if you work hard enough at it. At first, happiness sometimes feels like it’s hard to reach, like a neverending goal that keeps moving farther away no matter how many steps you try to take towards it. Happiness takes discipline. It might sound counterintuitive that it takes discipline to be happy. It can be a revelation that you have to work hard at being happy, that you have to put in the time and energy to achieve happiness. In this way, you can’t be too passive about your own happiness.
To some, it doesn’t come naturally. Happiness requires regular maintenance and practice, like maintaining a fit body through regular exercise and a healthy diet. To maintain your happiness, follow the principles of a balanced lifestyle. Implement regular check-ins with family and friends, and do an audit of each part of your life to find out which areas need improvement and which needs eliminating. Below are some more tips on how to maintain your happiness.
Table of Contents
- Let go of toxic thinking
- Make your health a priority
- Make friends and family a priority
- Unplug from social media
- Choose carefully what you consume
1. Let go of toxic thinking
Let go of anger and frustration. Don’t let negative thoughts be the reason that your life feels unfulfilled. First, you have to be more aware of your thoughts. Just like habits form by strengthening certain neural connections, building the required muscle memory starts with recognizing you have a problem. You can unconsciously have bad habits, like persistent toxic thinking that is too focused on negativity. Letting go of anger and frustration is a great weight off your shoulders. It allows you to feel happier and less tied to cycles of negative thinking. Happiness is a habit, which you can develop by letting go of toxic thinking.
2. Make your health a priority
This means exercising, quitting smoking, and having a healthy diet. Physical wellness has a great influence on your mental wellbeing. It’s easy to neglect your health when you have bills to pay and work to do, so it’s worthwhile to remember that healthy bodies make healthy minds. Either eliminate or moderate the things that will shorten your life span like the ones I listed above. Cleanse and declutter. Your environment influences how you think, so create an environment that is more helpful to your goals. Ever look at a cluttered desk and automatically feel overwhelmed by a seemingly simple task such as tidying and cleaning up? Make it easy on yourself and start with the simple things such as organizing your desk and your personal space. Healthy habits help in creating happiness as a habit.
3. Make friends and family a priority
Studies have shown that age-related risks such as dementia and Alzheimer’s increase the more socially isolated you are. By improving relationships with the people around you, you can be more satisfied with your personal life. Those with a solid support system are more resilient because they have others they can lean on in times of difficulty. That’s why making time for friends, new and old, can be so important. Don’t work too hard. Humans need play as much as they need work. Everyone needs to realize that work is not the be all and end all to life. Work is such a large part of our lives that you must find something you enjoy doing. It’s true that we need meaningful work to find fulfillment in our lives. The number of people who work really hard will wonder why they have let life pass them by.
4. Unplug from social media
Social media is a massive distraction and overconsumption of it can lead to feelings of inadequacy about your own life and self-defeating comparison. Sure, social media can have its fleeting rewards, and momentary joy from likes and peer approval. But these are like empty calories that if added frequently to your diet, lead to harmful side effects. Studies have shown that this type of desire for peer approval can be harmful for your health. Limit screen time; it can help to install an app on your phone that limits the amount of time you spend on social media. Being mindful of your consumption of social media can help make happiness a habit.
5. Choose carefully what you consume
When passively scrolling through social media, it’s easy to intake harmful content unless you pay close attention to what you are consuming. Choosing carefully also applies to the kind of people you associate with and spend time with. Making a decision about what you consume leads you to live a life that is intentional. Living your life with intention means that you think about making smart decisions instead of letting others make these decisions for you. This takes a lot of discipline. If you say you will do something, you have to be disciplined enough to follow through on your intention and to do it.
Discipline is the hardest thing to master. There are too many excuses, too many distractions and obligations. But if you want to achieve something great, you have to make a promise to yourself that you will accomplish what you set out to achieve.
Happiness is hard work. Just as no one expects to be handed money and have everything taken care of for them, you have to be willing to put in the effort to reap the rewards. Your quality of life can either go up or down depending on how much time you put into maintaining the essential aspects of an enriched and fulfilling life. Setting aside time and schedule in things like exercise and family time is a great start. Living an intentional life where you are cognizant of the reasoning behind the decisions that you make will make you more aware of what needs to be improved and what needs to be eliminated. Happiness is a habit, and requires a mindful approach to maintain for the long term.