10 Happiness Boosters May 10, 2010
Posted by nrhatch in Exercise & Fitness, Happiness, Health & Wellness.trackback
Much of our happiness depends on the choices we make in our daily lives. Try boosting your happiness with a few of these strategies:
1. Create uncertainty. Be curious. Savor mystery. Leave yourself wondering. Try new things. Create new challenges. See where life leads. Go with the flow.
2. Go on a “first date” with someone you’ve known for years ~ act as if you’ve just met. Ask questions. Listen to the answers.
3. When something “bad” happens, play the “what if” game. Ask: “what if this setback is really a shortcut?” Look for possible hidden blessings. Focus on the situation with curiosity, wonder, and excitement ~ not fear.
4. Invest in new adventures, not more stuff. Invite someone along to share the new experience with you.
5. Access your inner child. Be flexible, spontaneous, and playful. Be creative. Make something with your own hands.
6. When you’re picking a movie (or deciding what to do, wear, or eat), don’t feel pressured to make THE best choice. Instead, narrow your choices down to two that are “good enough” and make your final selection randomly ~ flip a coin and let the “fates” decide.
7. Do good deeds. Lend a hand to strangers. Give money away. Pick one day a week to focus on helping others. Mix it up ~ don’t get into a rut.
8. Know when to walk away from a dead-end job, an ill-fated relationship, or a check out line that isn’t moving. Don’t stay put based on the time and energy you have invested ~ that “water over the dam” is gone. Pretend you just stumbled into the present situation. Then ask: “Should I stay or go?”
9. Exercise. Take a walk in the park at lunch, or around the block after dinner. Take regular stretch breaks during the day. Practice yoga. Lift weights.
10. Laugh. Smile. Repeat. We do not laugh because we are happy. We are happy because we laugh.
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Spirit Lights The Way 
Gee! hrhatch. Just when I’m beginning to find similarities between us, and that you aren’t ‘the persona’ necessarily that appears on the blog, I am given this, and feel ‘miles’ away from ever living these rules. (Although 9 and l0, for example are just modes of life). So I won’t suggest alternatives, cause I know you are happy with you’re life, and I only ‘change’ my ‘habits’, when ‘I have too….grin grin’. So all the best. We’re just ‘different’ people!
Rules, what rules?
They’re ideas and suggestions to consider . . . not rules or complex formulas to implement.
They are strategies I’ve used to remind myself that:
1. Life should be more than a series of stressful moments strung together ad infinitum.
2. Life should be a joyous journey of adventure and discovery.
3. Living life without passion is like trying to go hot air ballooning with an empty balloon.
Have a Marvelous Monday!
I’m a big believer in #4 – stuff will never bring satisfaction but experiences have a way of enriching one’s life. Can’t wait till the kiddos are old enough to do some big traveling.
Trying new experiences ~ like our recent kayaking trip ~ keeps us “awake and alive.”
For tiny tots, all of life is a BIG adventure.
We benefit when we emulate their wonder as we wander. : )
Thanks for dropping by!
Each of those are very positive. I would like to add a semi-negative to the mix.
Choose your music wisely. Downer music (much of the C&W stuff out there, for instance) centers on loss, heartbreak and despair.
Music is compelling. Upbeat, happy tunes (if you can find them), or in my case Classical and Movie Soundtracks do the job.
Surround yourself with gloom, and gloom is what you’ll get. Get happy, ‘eh?
Excellent suggestion, Rik!
Music can be extremely uplifting . . . or designed to bring us “down, down, down.”
If I’m happy, I listen to upbeat tunes to continue the upward spiral.
If I’m not happy, I listen to upbeat tunes to break the cycle.
Thanks!
Rules, guidelines, blueprint, suggestions or ideas, etc… Who really cares what they’re called…? If they’re time-tested with proven positive results, that’s all that really matters… I like all of them and I live by all of them — except when I don’t… and then I read posts like this and I’m reminded of why I AM happy most of the time… Thanks, Nancy…!
Same here!
And when something happens that is not to my “liking” . . . I love to play with Idea #3 . . . and look for the “olive” in the bottom of the glass.
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