Being happy really is a choice for most healthy people, but it’s also a fluid thing because of course life (and each day) has it’s ups and downs. But the key to cultivating happiness and keeping it nearby is really in the smaller details of life. You don’t necessarily need to turn your life upside down to make it happier, you might just need to start making some small changes and stick with them. Here are some things to think about.
Making Your Mornings Less Stressful
Most of us have places to get to in the morning, and not getting enough sleep can leave us feeling groggy and rushed a lot of the time. But any way that you streamline the morning process and make things less stressful is really going to affect how you go into the rest of the day.
If you’re always rushed during your commute for example, commit to waking up ten minutes earlier everyday for a week so you can leave with plenty of time. If at the end of the week it doesn’t make you feel better than you can ditch the new habit…but let’s be honest it probably will.
Get Enough Sleep
It’s easy to suggest changing your sleep schedule and not always easy to accomplish it, but getting plenty of rest is truly important when it comes to mental health and reducing anxiety. It doesn’t have to be a laborious process either, it should feel good. Try to get to sleep around the same time each day to start training your body into accepting a bedtime, and then you can work backwards and go to bed a few minutes early each night until you feel like you’re waking up refreshed in the mornings.
Avoid sleep distractions when you’re winding down for the night, including cell phones, the TV, excess light, and anything that might stress you out. If it keeps you up at night to remember things you need to accomplish the next day, try keeping a notepad by the bed and writing out your to-do list or notes before you lay down so that those thoughts can live on the page and not in your brain.
Take Time to Connect
Humans need other humans, so no matter how busy things get always try to take time to reach out to your loved ones and have conversations no matter how brief they are. We often shy away from making phone calls when we don’t want to get caught in a conversation that we don’t have time for, but truly it’s not to hard to call someone and just be like “I only have 30 seconds to talk but I just wanted to let you know I’m thinking of you.” It’s nice for you and them, and keeps you connected to the things that really matter in life, happy relationships.
Yay happiness for everyone! love this
It’s so true that it’s the small things we need to keep up with all the time. Happiness is totally a process that we have to commit to
Sleeping is so key. Without sleep you can start to get sick and sad
Great