Are you tired of chasing happiness and finding it just out of reach?
The truth is, happiness is not a destination — it’s a habit. That means you can train it and make it better.
In this article, we’ll explore 3 habits of incredibly happy people that can help you cultivate a more joyful and fulfilling life.
1. Practice Gratitude and Appreciate Life
Let’s talk a bit about gratitude because not a lot of people do this on a daily basis.
In fact, most people never do this.
They fail to take a moment every day and look at what they value a lot. Like the smaller things in life: the birds singing, the sky is pretty, and a lot more that can make you happy without a lot of effort.
The other day I was walking outside with my girlfriend and we were heading off to the countryside-ish part of our city and we saw a lot of beautiful nature things.
That’s something that makes me really happy.
You could download my free Notion template where you can enter your daily gratitude moments. It’s sorted by date and you can add text and images — download it here, for free.
Here are 3 reasons why keeping gratitude is good for your mental health:
- It boosts positive emotions. Keeping gratitude can help to increase positive emotions and reduce negative emotions like anxiety and depression.
- Improving relationships. Expressing gratitude towards others can improve relationships by fostering feelings of appreciation and connectedness.
- It can reduce stress. By focusing on the positive aspects of our lives and expressing gratitude, we can shift our attention away from stressors and promote feelings of calm and relaxation.
So overall it seems like a good idea to express your gratitude by writing it down every night.
2. Build Healthy Relationships
Everybody understands that unhealthy or toxic relationships are bad.
People in bad relationships often
- Live with negative emotions. They may feel unsupported or unappreciated, leading to feelings of dissatisfaction and unhappiness.
- Get demotivated. When you’re surrounded by people that don’t support you, life might get a little difficult.
- Get frustrated. People that constantly make you feel frustrated aren’t an addition to your life.
Your unhealthy relationship with others is limiting your happiness. When we engage in relationships that are negative, abusive, or controlling, we may feel trapped and unable to break free from the cycle of dysfunction.
For example with your family. This can be a challenging but important step in maintaining healthy relationships. Boundaries are limits that we establish for ourselves in order to protect our physical, emotional, and mental well-being.
When we have healthy boundaries, we are able to communicate our needs and expectations clearly, while also respecting the needs and boundaries of others.
Setting boundaries can be particularly challenging with family members because of the history and dynamics of the relationship.
Family members may have certain expectations or assumptions about how you will interact with them and may feel hurt or upset if you attempt to establish boundaries.
3. Self-Care Isn’t BS, You Need to Work for It
There are two (actually three) types of people:
- Those who believe in self-care
- Those who don’t
- (And those who apply it)
Self-care on its own sounds like something good, and it is. Improving yourself and taking care of your own is good. No doubt about that.
You not only need to stay in good physical condition but also mentally.
But there are also a lot of people that don’t believe in self-care and this it’s BS because they see this as a bunch of people doing spiritual stuff.
Whatever that means.
Here’s what you need to do to take care of yourself:
- Sleep. Make sure you’re having a healthy sleeping pattern. It has to be regular, and about 7–8 hours per night.
- Meditation. If you could meditate twice every day for about ten minutes, it would give you more peace. It’s not a difficult exercise and you can do it anywhere.
- Gratitude. I’m referring back to the first topic of this article. Practicing gratitude is a great way to improve your mental health.
Self-care is an essential component of maintaining good health and well-being. Doing these things helps you to feel more relaxed, energized, and fulfilled, enabling you to live your best life.