Cultivating Happiness: 5 Ways to Live a Happier Life

“Happiness is not a goal… it’s a by-product of a life well-lived.” – Eleanor Roosevelt

Oftentimes, we allow all our shortcomings to overshadow our triumphs. Our minds wander and balloon these minor inconveniences and before we know it, our ‘inadequacies’ invade all our thoughts, dampening our moods and many-a-times, our entire day. But, next time we run into a situation where it’s easy to throw ourselves a pity party – let’s stop. And think. Recall that in order to really and truly appreciate life (and its many curveballs!) we must have an attitude of gratitude and practice nurturing on-going happiness. There are many simple things you can incorporate into your daily lifestyles to help detract from the negatives and foster happiness. Here are five simple tips that can be used every day:

5. DO WHAT YOU LOVE

It’s going to be extremely difficult staying positive and productive doing something that you dislike – possibly even hate! Why spend years of your life – that you’d never get back – working at a miserable job or participating in activities that don’t spark joy? Find the things that ignite passion in your soul and fire in your spirit, and then do those things! You’d see your satisfactory meter go up immensely and you’d truly experience real happiness.

4. CELEBRATE SMALL VICTORIES

Waiting to celebrate only after meeting a big milestone means that you could be waiting for a long time sometimes – so why not celebrate those little ups that happen in between? Cheer for yourself when you’ve managed to clear your packed to-do list before 3 p.m. on a Monday! Give yourself a well-deserved pat on the back after you’ve woken up extra early on that rainy Sunday morning and tackled that clothes pile! Don’t let your little victories go unnoticed. Take pleasure in all your achievements – the big AND the small ones.

3. ACCEPT IMPERFECTIONS

Everybody makes mistakes and perfection is impossible. It makes no sense that you hold yourself to un-achievable standards. If you truly want to experience happiness, you have to learn to accept and then really love those flaws that make you, uniquely you!

2. FOCUS ON THE POSITIVES

  It’s hard finding things that are deemed ‘positive’ when the world seems almost hardwired to find problems and things to criticize. However, you’ve got to actively retrain yourself into channeling positivity into your life. A simple way to do this is to insert moments of gratitude into your day. For example, during your lunch break identify something that happened earlier in the day that you are grateful for. Then before bed, find another that happened during your afternoon that you are thankful for. Soon, it’ll be like second-nature and you’d find yourself becoming much more contented with life and its happenings.

1. LIVE IN THE MOMENT

There is nothing more important than just living life as it happens. We are often quick to retract into past resentments or daydream about future events that would most likely never happen the way we envision. While we’re living in fantasies, either already gone or yet to come, our present lives are quickly passing us by. Instead of attempting to escape your reality, accept it. Live it. Enjoy it. Make the most of it – and a new found appreciation for what currently is – will simply emerge.