- When did your happiness stop?
At some point life got you down. In order to rediscover happiness, you need to understand when and how it got lost. Perhaps a particular event shook you. Losing something or someone can cause such despair that you feel like a piece of you may be gone forever. If this resonates with you, then think if you have properly grieved this loss. Grieving has no timeline and make take days or even decades to recover from. However, with time and professional help there will come a time that this loss is no longer the focal point of your life. As it fades into the background you can focus more on positive aspects.
In other cases, happiness may have been eroding for a while. Try recalling positive memories and people, places, and things that comprised these times. Try to explore the sensations in these memories a bit further. Then try to notice when you begun to lose this sense of happiness. Was it because of the dullness of daily tasks, or aging dragging you down? As you identify the source of losing your joy you can begin to discover to ways to resurrect your spirit.
- Don’t become obsessed with finding happiness
Being happy shouldn’t be your only aim. Not even moment in your life will be a happy one. If you focus too much on being happy it will cause you to constantly be chasing it. Realize that happiness can occur spontaneously in ideal conditions. Forcing this a joyful state can trap you in your mind. You mind can equal help you become happy or prevent your enjoyment. Sometimes the endless pursuit of happiness is the very thing that blocks you from really living.
- What does happiness in the moment feel like?
Perhaps you aren’t enjoying happiness now is because it feels so inconsistent in your life. Happiness is not a singular emotion and can evolve as you age or enter a new phase of life. Not knowing your current happiness culture can prevent you from doing things that uplift you. If you don’t require certain emotions as contributing to your happiness, then you won’t see actions that produce these emotions as helping to make you happy. Take for instance how in your youth you enjoyed coloring and found joy in selecting various colors for your refrigerator art. In your adulthood you may appreciate the peace you feel while doodling, but don’t get excited considering what colors you want to incorporate. To regain your happiness, figure out what actions in art creation now makes you happy and how you feel the sensations throughout your body. As you discover a recipe for happiness you will be able to stock your self-care pantry with the proper ingredients to quickly craft a joyful existence.
- Happiness changes over time
What made you happy a few years ago may not work for you in present day. Create a list of things that currently uplift you and opportunities you hope to explore in the future. Allocate five minutes before bed each day to reflect on what you did and did not enjoy that day. Consider how you wish to change your experience tomorrow. Think about if you want to reach out to a special person or if you want to eat a particular meal. If you find an individual draining, or overly negative than reconsider how often you wish to interact with them.
The power of this day -end review is that you can audit your activities and revise your plans going forward. You can understand how often you wish to do certain tasks or hobbies, or interact with certain people. You can also identify challenges you wish to tackle or opportunities you wish to explore. Don’t feel like you have to do everything the next day. You can understand how far out you wish to plan something or strategize ways to broaden your comfort zone. Your review helps you learn to be more selective by getting comfortable with the idea of saying no or with whom you wish to interact. Over time you will strengthen your ability to prioritize things and broaden your concept of happiness. You may also discover a new passion or hot space. Ultimately, your goal is to find the right balance of experiences that comprise your happiness recipe.
- What hinders your happiness?
Just as you discover what uplift you, so too must you identify what drags you down. This can involve issues with mindset, particular situations, people, or events. Reflect on aspects that create barriers to your happiness. Begin by noticing your thoughts. Frequently, we ruminate over issues that upset us. Happiness is something that we enjoy in the present moment, which we reflect upon with tenderness later on, but the memories only exist in the recesses of our minds. Likewise, we put ample mental effort into planning something or a solution to a problem. Yet, those thoughts don’t linger after competition of the plan or solution. We fixate on our negative thoughts. Watching out thoughts helps us identify aspects that are dragging us down and preventing happiness. Journaling is an effective tool to help us process and discover patterns. When you notice a particular things or pattern is consistently troubling you, perhaps you can begin to take vital steps to resolve it.
- Life isn’t always pleasant
You must find peace in the fact that life will always have its difficult moments. Adversity helps us learn lessons and build resolve. By riding out the storm, we are able to get closer to enjoying happiness again. When we accept life is changing, we avoid living in denial and quicken a return to normalcy.
- Self-care is important
No one can be happy if their mind, body and spirit is not healthy. By maintain a self-care habit you can weather any storm in your life. Prioritize ample sleep, regular exercise, a healthy diet, and relationships with positive people. Be careful about how much time you spend on social media to avoid comparing your life to them. Instead, pick up a new hobby or spend some time outdoors. You can also make small changes like working to maintain good posture or creating an uplifting mantra. Changes, big and small, go a long way in improving your overall wellness.
- Take care of your brain
Happiness is something that goes beyond a mental construct into the physical chemistry of your brain. In various situations the brain releases chemicals like dopamine, serotonin, and endorphins. Although their roles differ, each plays a key part in generating a positive mood. Research activities that help release these chemicals and then notice how you body feels.
- Surrender control
When you seek to cling to control, you block you chance at happiness. You must realize there is a balance between assuming responsibility for your actions and knowing much of life is out of our hands. Fixating on control causes you unhappiness when things don’t work out like you expected. You might blame yourself for the outcome and overlook the positive moments. By accepting you can only guide an outcome, but not assure it, you will be more easily able to celebrate the positive facets of the situation. You will enjoy happiness rather than angst. Mindset can be positive or negative, it’s difficult to experience both simultaneously. Instead of craving control, try to relax, and reflect on how things turn out as it should.
- Perfection is a construct
Happiness isn’t created in a vacuum. Nothing in life is ever perfect, therefore seeking perfection is a recipe for disappointment. When you chase perfection, you miss the moment when good or even very good things happen. You will always wonder what else could have been. Be satisfied with good or good enough. Remember satisfaction is a component of happiness.
- Go with your flow
A major sign you are enjoying your is losing a sense of time. This means you have entered a flow state where you are fully immersed in something. Maybe you are playing or listening to music, enjoying a hobby, reading a book, spending time with loved ones, or working. Losing yourself in an activity doesn’t mean you have consistent joy, but instead happiness results from a sense of fulfillment.
- Foster community
It can be hard to be happy with you are socially isolated. Not having people in your life can amplify a sense of hopelessness. You can’t be happy if you lack hope. Fight the darkness by picking up your phone and contact someone you love. You may also choose to focus on listening to the struggles in their life and seeing how you can support them. Helping others cultivates a sense of purpose in our lives, which helps contributes to our happiness.
- Be mindful
Mindfulness allows us to see the present free of any judgements. Awareness of all of our senses quiets the thoughts in our mind. It helps to open our eyes to the blessing occurring around us in any given moment. With patience and practice, mindfulness can improve our overall wellbeing and increase the foundations of our happiness.
- Set a goal, but focus on your benchmarks
Having a goal is a great way to foster hope for your future and bolster your present-day mood. Yet, if you fixate on an overall goal, you may miss the lessons and victories you encounter along the way. When you celebrate your progress, you can improve your overall outlook. Progress can involve aspects of your work, your personal life, relationships, or hobbies. Each step forward gets you closer to success. Every step forward gives you a small win that fosters pride within yourself and builds motivation to keep going. Remember, happiness is not a singular feeling and the satisfaction of progress can be a significant piece of your happiness puzzle.
- Proactivity is empowering
Happiness can start in you believe it is possible for you and that you are the agent of your destiny. Yes, some parts of life are beyond our control, but we have the Divine gift of freewill. By being proactive people are taking action. Be empowered to follow advice in this article and believe you can rediscover happiness. It may take substantial time and effort, but it is possible for you to enjoy life again.