Three Ways to Be Happier

Hello lovely people! On this edition of Mental Health Monday, I want to share with you three tips that I personally feel make the biggest difference for me in staying happy and positive, even when things aren’t all sunshine and unicorns.

Please feel free to customize these to your own personality, since we are all different and require different methods of self-love.

I am very passionate about self-care and having the self-awareness to know what we need to feel better when the going gets tough.

I have so many thoughts on this and so many pieces of advice from my own experiences with mental health that I intend to share on this blog in the future. I truly believe that you cannot be healthy if you’re neglecting the mental and purely focusing on the physical. They are both integral parts of the equation, and I urge you not to forego one in favor of another.

Hope these help if you’re ever feeling blah, but also feeling blah is a part of life and sometimes wallowing in the blah feeling feels kinda good in a masochistic kind of way. Just being real. 😉

 

1. To be happier, tap into your inner child

   

There’s a reason kids are often so much happier than adults. And though it’s easy to assume that this is because they just don’t understand yet how life works, that they haven’t yet been burned, that they don’t have to deal with the stresses of the everyday, I don’t think it’s that at all.

To you, a child’s bad grade is no big deal, but to them it’s a huge source of stress. You might not think that it matters in the long run that some other kid told them their hair looks stupid, but to them, it’s devastating.

Kids feel sadness and anger and pain, and these emotions are no less valid than the same ones we feel as adults (I feel really weird referring to myself as an adult, LOL).

What sets kids apart from most adults though is the lens through which they view the world. To kids, the world is not a cruel place filled with disappointments, empty promises, and bygone dreams.

It’s a world of magic and wonder. A world where anything is possible if you just believe.

I ask you, which would you rather live in?

I know it sounds borderline crazy to revert to this childlike way of thinking, that it feels downright impossible, especially when you regularly witness so much injustice, cruelty, and terror in the world.

But I urge you to make an effort to see the other side of this same world, the side that is full of light and kindness and magic. It’s what you feel when the stranger in line in front of you unexpectedly pays for your coffee, when the person you really like actually really likes you back, when you reach a goal you’d been working on for ages and ages.

It’s in that first sip of iced coffee when you’d been craving it for weeks, in the way the sunset looks when you’re surrounded with your favorite people after a soul-fulfilling day together, the way you feel when you’re doing something you really love.

I know you felt it, and I want you to know, that feeling is always there inside you. Your inner child is always there for you if you’re brave enough to let yourself be vulnerable enough to see it.

So laugh at yourself, be silly, stop taking yourself and life so seriously, watch Disney, be brave and unapologetic and exceptionally you.

As someone very wise once said, “happiness can be found even in the darkest of times if one only remembers to turn on the light.”

 

2. To be happier, cook (or just eat) something you really love with someone you really love

Hear me out.

This is not me advocating eating a tub of ice cream to make yourself feel better, though sometimes that’s honestly exactly what we need. I’m talking about that amazing feeling when you create something really scrumptious for yourself and for someone you wish to impress with your incredible culinary skills.

If you’re a sweets person, find an amazing dessert recipe. Maybe you want to find a healthy version so you can eat it and feel like a total goddess, or maybe you want the real, buttery, sugary version so you can eat that and also feel like a total goddess. You do you.

And if you’re more of a savory nugget, open that cookbook I know you have lying around, and tackle that crazy recipe you always said was too complicated. The process will take your mind off whatever’s bothering you, and food often really does have the power to lift our mood, especially when enjoyed with a loved one. Remember, food is fuel but it’s also a social binder and a source of pleasure, and you shouldn’t ever feel guilty for eating something that brings you joy.

3. To be happier, do something you love

   

We often get so caught up in things that need to be done that we forget about all the things that truly bring us joy.

Maybe it’s reading a novel curled up with a cup of coffee, maybe it’s playing an instrument, or dancing crazy to your favorite tunes.

Whatever it is, take the time to treat yourself to this activity that makes you feel so alive, and I guarantee it’ll be an instant mood-booster.

Bonus points if you can figure out a way to include this in every single day. So often we sacrifice things we love because we think it’s selfish of us to enjoy them when there are so many other things begging for our attention.

That is so so wrong.

The absolute best thing to invest your time into is your happiness and health.

Finding time to regularly devote to what you love is precisely what will maintain your wellbeing and make you a happier and better human.

I really hope you implement these three tips into your day. Does doing them protect you from any and all heartache or bad moods? Of course not; we’re human, and negative emotions are an integral part of that. But maybe if you consciously implement these suggestions next time you’re feeling down in the dumps, you’ll realize that you really do have the power to pull yourself out. And that will make you feel like a badass self-sufficient boss.

And hey, if not, that tub of ice cream is always there. 😉