During stressful times it’s important to cultivate inner happiness to help you transcend above the chaos. Practicing happiness helps me get through difficult times quicker and smoother. If you want to be happy, the truth of the matter is that it comes from within. So, what do you have to do on a daily basis to make yourself happy?
Practice these four happiness habits below:
Be Good to Yourself: You can’t take care of others if you don’t take care of your basic needs. Perfect example is when the airline attendant says “put your mask on before the person next to you even it’s your child, spouse or parent”. I recommend keeping a journal for 14 days, by asking yourself the following questions:
- What did you eat? When did you eat?
- How much sleep did you get?
- Did you exercise?
- Did you practice mindfulness?
After keeping an honest journal, you will recognize what caused you to feel fatigued and stressed out.
Be Positive: Look for the positive in life. In every bad experience there is always a lesson to be learned. If you really take the time to look, you will find something good, something genuinely positive, about every situation. I reinforce positivity in myself by telling myself I’m awesome after accomplishing a few tasks on my never ending to-due list.
Be Grateful: The benefits of practicing gratitude are nearly endless. Each day say three things you grateful for. Every night before bed, I acknowledge different people I’m thankful for and recognize all the magical moments that happened throughout my day.
Be Mindful: There are so many different definitions for the word mindfulness. I teach and practice mindfulness two ways.
1) When you can’t control the stressor – learn to adapt and accept it. For example, you have no control of your train being delayed or canceled due to emergency track repairs. The only thing you can control is the way you react to it. To keep from losing your cool, choose to use this time wisely. Be productive by listening to a TED Talk, return emails, clean out your in-box, and catch up on work.
2) Being mentally aware of where we are and what we are doing. For example, arriving at a location and having no idea how you got there. Texting while walking and knocking into someone or something. Multi-taking doesn’t work! It’s important to be fully present in what you are doing and tame your monkey mind.
So how do you become Mindful – through Meditation! Meditation as I define it is all about letting go. Quieting the noise in your head and cultivating the power of surrender. My preferred style of teaching is guided meditation. It’s easy to learn and also a very powerful tool! During a guided meditation you are in such a deep state of relaxation that the imagery you are guided to visualize becomes very vivid. Immersing yourself in a guided meditation while listening to positive suggestions is a blissful experience that results in real and immediate benefits.
Practicing these habits are not going to solve all your problems and nor going to render your life a non-stop parade of unicorns and rainbows. None the less you will become more resilient by cultivating inner happiness. These practices work for me and hopefully they will for you too!