Sometimes it feels as if happiness is right within our reach. For ages, the perfect answers on how to have a happy life have been around achieving life goals. If you could just get a higher-paying job, find that perfect life partner, or lose just the right amount of weight, you’d definitely unlock the secret of how to have a happy and peaceful life.
You see, unfortunately, one day – maybe in a few weeks, months, or years – you realize that happiness will not be found in your job. It will most definitely not be found in money, your big house, or that uber-cool car you own. But in today’s world, we are so caught up with the mainstream notions that our journey of figuring out how to have a happy life almost always begins with gaining these big, materialistic things. Somehow, we believe these things will nurse our wounds, erase our worries, and fill our empty hearts with happiness.
This is why we could all use a reminder that true happiness, peace, and joy are created within us. It is made in the moments that light up our souls and ignite a deep surge of passion within us. Happiness lies in appreciating small things. It is about noticing that the universe is beautiful and being grateful to have ever witnessed this marvel. It is in the comfort you feel when you sometimes wake up early to watch a beautiful sunrise. Happiness is found while walking in parks when you find small, dainty daises in the middle of grass blades. Happiness is when your eyes are filled with tears after watching the perfect happy ending in your favorite rom-com. It is in the warmth your hand feels when you hold your morning coffee mug. Happiness is found in the pages you write, the paintings you create, the plants you see, and just about everything around you.
It is not the final destination. Happiness is a choice you make every day. So what do you do to make this choice easier? Well, we are here to help you with just. In this blog post, we are going to dive deeper into seven of the best tips on how to make life happy and peaceful. Let’s get started.
How To Have A Happy And Peaceful Life?
Happiness is the goal that almost everyone is working for. Yet, such few people end up achieving it. Figuring out how to have a happy life is tough. How can one possibly be happy every day, every second, every living moment of their life? To be honest, the truth is you cannot. You cannot because you are, after all, a human who experiences various emotions.
Therefore, if you are looking for answers on how to have a fulfilled life where you are happy at every step, sorry to disappoint you. It is as impossible as finding the elixir of youth. But learning how to be a little happier every day? That is possible. Learning how to be happy with the life you have and being grateful for it? That is possible. Becoming a tad bit more positive as a person? That is possible too.
To help you achieve these short-term yet important goals, here are the seven most useful tips on how to have a happy life.
1. Let go of the hate.
We live in a world full of hate and polarising emotions. Therefore, every night, learn to empty your heart with the overwhelming amount of hate and negativity it has been subjected to. Because if you let this hate fester, the only person you end up hurting is yourself. Therefore, if you want to learn how to have a happy and peaceful life, try with all that you have to fill your heart with love and positivity for the new day.
2. Shift your perspective.
How happy you are is directly proportional to how satisfied you are with your life. Most people will tell you that happiness is about hitting all your life goals. But think about it, are you really happy when you achieve your life goals?
Now, this does not mean that achieving life goals will not lead to a happier life. It means that you need a potent shift in your mindset to actually feel happy. Learning how to have a happy life is correlated with learning how to be satisfied in life. If you learn to find this satisfaction in the journey rather than the end goal, you are much more likely to feel happy, irrespective of the results.
3. Set clear boundaries.
Self-care is essential in learning how to have a peaceful and happy life. Learning to say no and being diligent about setting clear boundaries in both personal and professional life is an important part of self-care.
For most of us, it is easy to fall into a toxic and exhausting pattern of overextending ourselves in different spheres of our life. At the end of all such instances, we feel used up, downright tired, and unhappy. Therefore, learning to limit yourself and others and being consistent about these boundaries is a significant step. This helps you have healthy relationships, which ultimately impact your happiness positively.
4. Practice gratitude on the hard days.
No matter how unfortunate it is, the truth is that you are going to have hard, heartbreaking, and exceptionally challenging days in your life. And we know how hard this will be, but it is important that you find something to be thankful for, even on these days. A key step in learning how to have a happy life is to know that there is always something to be grateful for, even when it is hard to see on the surface.
5. Be aware of the ratios.
Another important step in learning how to have a happy and peaceful life is figuring out the ratio of the currency (think of time, stress, money, etc.) versus the ratio of happiness.
Think of your favorite yogurt. Say frozen yogurt with candy toppings. This is the best example of low currency and high happiness ratios. The yogurt is super tasty, the place is nice and social, and it gets you to be a little active too. Win-win from all angles. It also costs very little currency of time and money. Figure out what else in your life is like this activity. List everything you can – phone-call with your best friend, music, journaling, etc.
Now think of the things that have the worst currency-to-happiness ratios. What activities are draining your energy and sucking away your happiness? Cut off these activities and replace them with good ones. You will be astonished at how useful this obvious and simple tip is.
6. Stop comparing yourself to hypotheticals.
Hypotheticals are imaginary characters and narratives that you have set in your mind. A tested way to ruin your happiness is constantly comparing yourself with one of these hypotheticals. This includes things you should have been– wealthier, prettier, smarter, capable of cleaning your room like a normal adult, etc. What this comparison does is that it takes away all your successes for granted and disregards all the struggles you endure in your daily life.
This is why learning how to have a happy life begins with appreciating yourself for how far you have come. Try to aim your energies at what is actually happening rather than living in the hypothetical world. Focus on small accomplishments rather than obsessing unnecessarily about the bigger things you miss.
7. Give yourself permission to be happy.
You can be happy, pal.
This is not a challenge or a dismissal of your life. This is just permission from us, random strangers, who know that you deserve this happiness even if you think you don’t.
Sometimes we end up believing that we are not allowed to be happy. There is so much wrong with our lives. The permanent insecurities, consuming ambitions, and temporary or not-so-temporary problems make sure that our calendars are never free for happiness.
And trust us when we say that they never will be.
But you can still be happy either way. We promise. It won’t slow you down.
Conclusion:
Learning how to have a happy life is a journey and choice that you have to make every single day of your life. It is about learning how to be satisfied in life, appreciating small things, and building healthy relationships.
We hope these tips on how to have a peaceful and happy life help you gain true happiness. Now even though we just gave you a bunch of tips on how to be happy, if you end up obsessing about the whole thing, it is only going to be counterproductive. Don’t stress about it. Take each day as it comes, and you never know which moment might spur unimaginable joy for you.
If you have been unhappy for a long time now, there might be deeper issues at play. Asking for professional help is the right way out in such situations. Getting professional help is now easier than ever with the advent of online therapy platforms. To know more about them, click here.
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