Flex Your Happiness Muscle
Happiness is just like a muscle - without exercise, it grows weak. By applying the principles of building muscle to building happiness, you can establish a "strong core" of satisfaction and joy.
Steps
- Develop a happiness workout routine. This means making time in your schedule to focus on happiness, just like you would focus on physical fitness or health. It can be difficult in the hustle and bustle of life to make time just to be happy, and the thought of scheduling what many people consider to be a spontaneous gift may seem odd. But the better you get at creating happiness at will, no matter what is going on in your day, the happier you'll be overall. You can schedule your happiness exercise for 10 minutes in the morning, such as when you wake up, or 20 minutes in the afternoon after you finish working, or both!
- Decide what you'll do as a happiness exercise. Ideally this should be something that without fail, makes you feel happier, and it may take some practice to discover what that formula is. Here are some ideas:
- Start out by thinking of things that make you happy. What sorts of things do you like? What things make you smile or laugh? Make a list if it helps. Take a little time each day to focus on those things. For example, if you like watching old cartoons, do that during your "happy time".
- Be playful, be childlike. Act like a little kid. Turn on your favorite music and dance like there's nobody watching. Be as goofy as you can. Make funny faces in the mirror for a full 5 minutes. Play with your dog or your cat, or if you're lucky enough to have a child around, play with him or her - children are experts at happiness fitness.
- Update your gratitude journal. During every happiness session, add three more things you're thankful for to the growing list.
- Meditate and/or pray. For many people, the stillness and peace they find through meditation or prayer is the deepest form of happiness.
- Practice a random act of kindness. Maybe every day, during your happiness appointment, you can find a way to make other people happy, for no reason at all other than just because. You can even tell them to pay it forward.
- Push your happiness muscles to their limits. Physical muscles grow when they are stressed by lifting, pushing or pulling heavy weights. Similarly, you must challenge your emotional muscles to find new ways to be happy. As with physical exercise, you will need to step out of your comfort zone.
- Try to find out if there are new things that you like. If you like ice cream, perhaps see if you like frozen yogurt. If you're into alternative music, try pop! Trying new things excites the curiosity of our mind and extends us into new realms. You never know when you might discover something new that really grabs you.
- Do something you always wanted to do. Be bold. Always wanted to go skydiving but never got around to it? Block out your calendar, save up, and make it happen. You'll be thrilled that you tried, and you'll be satisfied to know that you can do anything.
- Apologize and forgive. These are both things that are very difficult to do, but they will make you stronger and freer, and happier.
- Smile as often as you can. Smiling is a universally accepted sign of happiness. Often, the simple act of smiling can make you feel happier. Studies show that the physical act of smiling can create the emotional effect of happiness.
- Smiling releases endorphins which make your emotional status skyrocket!
- On top of that, smiling can improve your health!
- Laugh as often as you can. "Laughter is the best medicine" holds some truth! If you can't find enough to laugh about, try laughing at nothing at all! Do laughter yoga.
- Put your body in motion. Action kills negativity, rumination and feelings of despair. Action rouses you from a funk and builds new energy for you to get more things done in your life. Dance, run, stretch, swim, rock climb, do kung-fu, play tennis, do a handstand, etc. When your body is in motion you're going to feel much more happy. Your body is marvelous. Keep it in motion.
- Feed your happiness muscles. To build physical muscles you have to make sure you're getting enough sleep, protein, vitamins, etc. The building blocks for happiness are very similar. It's hard to feel happy when your body is poorly taken care of. Get enough sleep, eat nutritious foods, and exercise regularly.
Tips
- If none of the steps seem to be working, your happiness muscle might be very weak. You may just need a little more practice. As any body builder will tell you, it takes a long time to build strength. The same goes with happiness, so keep trying!
Warnings
- The only person responsible for your happiness is you. Don't rely on anyone else to make you happy; it will never happen and you will grow old waiting.
- Happiness isn't a right, it's a privilege. Don't get too frustrated about not being happy - just keep trying. Indeed, focusing solely on happiness is likely to leave you very unhappy; seek fulfillment from everything you do and treat happiness as the added bonus, being grateful for its presence in your life.
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