Around 4% of the world’s population is depressed.
We’re all getting unhappier. It’s a common trend when we’re in the middle of a recession and things in the world aren’t going well.
Many people experience stress, anxiety, and just general unhappiness.
- Anxiety causes stress, and health problems when you’re experiencing stress daily.
- Many people have high blood pressure, too high average heart rates, and other heart-related problems.
These issues cause you to live a much shorter and less quality life. It’s very hard to start being happier out of the blue.
But certain habits can improve your daily amount of happiness.
Practise Mindfulness in the Morning & Evening
One of the most important things that caused me more happiness is getting more mindful in the morning and in the evening.
- Just a quick meditation session of 5 minutes in the morning gets you ready for the day.
- After meditation, you can apply other breathing techniques such as the Wim Hof method.
- By taking cold showers you both wake up and reset your body for the day.
It’s a great way of gaining more positive energy and happiness by simply breathing more consciously.
“Every body has mind power, I have learned to direct it toward my body and thus influence the cold and heating-system of my metabolism.”
— Wim Hof
Doing this every day is an essential happiness habit.
Daily Exercise Creates Endorphins (Happiness)
I’ve just done some workouts.
I cycled for about an hour and I can’t feel my legs (which has something to do with the lack of food today).
Doing these exercises on a regular basis makes you feel so happy. I’m really energetic and feel good because burning energy causes the release of Endorphins.
I’ve experienced so many good feelings after working out in the past that I should start doing it more often to get happier in general (and healthier).
It’s about the good feeling.
Create a Healthy Sleeping Pattern of Quality Sleep
Sleep is so important.
Not only to become happier but also to stay healthy. You can’t live a good life if you’re only getting 4–5 hours of sleep per night.
It’s not even close. You can’t do it.
- Creating a healthy (and consistent) sleeping pattern allows you to start your day fit and energetic.
- Sleep is one of the fundamentals of a happy lifestyle.
- If you’re able to have quality sleep, you have a much better day.
How to achieve this?
If you want to improve the quality of your sleep, try to stick to patterns.
- Sleep at the same time every day.
- Don’t sleep too short (< 6).
- Don’t sleep too long (> 8).
If you’re having trouble falling asleep you could try meditation before you go to sleep or when you’re already in bed.
You’d fall asleep so easily if you stick to the right breathing exercises.
“I love sleep. My life has the tendency to fall apart when I’m awake, you know?” — Ernest Hemingway
Practice the Stoic Philosophy to Stop Worrying
I’ve been reading “Discipline is Destiny” by Ryan Holiday for a couple of days now and after reading a couple of books on Stoicism including “Meditations” by Marcus Aurelius, I’ve come to the conclusion that Stoicism is one of the main solutions to living a happy life.
Doing these Stoic practices might help:
- Keep the focus on the present instead of the past and the future.
- You should guard the way your brain works. Don’t let other people intrude on your thoughts. Your time is valuable.
- Stop “caring” about other people’s opinions about you; they’re not worth it worrying about.
Negativity can be beaten.
It’s just the way you approach life that will influence the outcome of your decisions.
Do you have the courage to be happy?
Final Thoughts & Takeaways
It’s time to get yourself together and take care.
- It’s your responsibility to become and stay happy.
- You shouldn’t be bothered by other people’s opinions in regard to your happiness; do what makes you happy.
As a recap:
- Better mindfulness.
- Working out.
- Consistent sleeping pattern.
- Stoic lifestyle.
If you do these things, you’ll at least get a little happier.