Mental health and well-being have never had more of a focus. As the wider world strives to understand and recognize the importance of mental health, people look more intensely at their lives and circumstances and evaluate their happiness.
There are many ways we can improve our situation to become happier. More and more medical studies are being conducted to show the relationships between happiness and various life factors.
People can work on nine key things if they want to be happier every day. These include looking after our physical health, adopting a minimalist approach, and strengthening our interpersonal relationships.
Reset Your Sleep
While the effects of good sleep on physical health are well-documented, studies on sleep’s impact on happiness are rarer. Still, those studies show a link – poor sleep can lead to lower general happiness and satisfaction levels.
It’s essential to set aside a reasonable amount of time to rest. Over time, a lack of sleep will increase the risk of stress symptoms, mood disorders, and other negative unhappiness-related issues. It can also cause physical problems, which can cause people to be more unhappy.
Resetting sleep is vital. Easy ways to improve your sleep include cutting back on screen time for at least an hour before bed, drinking less water for the same period (to prevent waking in the middle of the night), and looking at other factors that may cause poor sleep, including the quality of your mattress quality, the firmness or softness of your pillows, and the temperature of your bedroom.
Exercise Is Key
We’re often told exercise releases endorphins that can boost the mood, and it’s true – exercise will improve happiness. However, it only has a short-term effect. You won’t feel happier the day after exercising – the boost is temporary.
This puts more focus on a consistently healthy lifestyle. It doesn’t need to be excessive – simply walking is enough to help improve mood, lower stress levels, and even tackle some mild forms of depression.
It’s best to set routines for regular exercise. Good habits are hard to break, and you’ll constantly get endorphin release to improve your mood. Your body will become trained for this, and you’ll start to get those happy feelings seeping into your whole week.
Plus, keeping fit can have happiness-boosting side effects. If you exercise outdoors, you’ll benefit from more fresh air. At the same time, increased exposure to sunlight will give you more vitamin D. You may also lose weight and get in shape, improving your self-esteem.
Focus On Gratitude
Psychological studies have examined the link between gratitude and happiness and found that people who are actively more grateful and who work on expressing those positive emotions will be more optimistic and, ultimately, happier.
Keeping a gratitude journal is an excellent option, allowing people to record what happened to them that day and express their gratitude. It can be challenging to start a journal, but the idea is to look at everything positive that happened during the day and write down how thankful you feel.
It doesn’t have to be a significant thing. You may only be thankful the traffic wasn’t as bad as the day before. Or it could be a friend calling you to say hi. Keeping those positive vibes recurring in the mind can keep happiness levels higher.
Strengthen and Evaluate Relationships
Relationships are often one of the most critical factors in our happiness. Consider how you feel around your friends and family and invest more time strengthening those bonds.
Unhappiness often leads to isolation, which can become a vicious cycle. People cut themselves off from loved ones rather than reaching out. Of course, personality types are different, but for most people, having those connections will improve their mood.
It’s also about cutting out toxic relationships – the family members or friends who are an emotional drain due to their negativity or one-sided view of the relationship. Don’t be afraid to reduce or eliminate contact with those who are not helping your mood.
When evaluating your happiness, consider how much effort you have put into maintaining positive relationships and whether that can be increased. See if you can find the time and energy by reducing negative relationship time and improving your organization skills.
Eliminate Excess and Clutter
Many people are turning to a minimalist lifestyle to boost their mood. It’s rooted in simplicity – simplifying your internal thoughts, possessions, and life so you can easily find fulfillment.
It works, too. Once you start decluttering your home, you’ll feel like your brain is being decluttered. Fewer distractions could cause you to waste time and have fewer chores since you don’t have as many items to maintain.
Minimalism is not a one-time thing. It is a constant effort to sustain the approach. If you let your standards slip, you may quickly find your home cluttered again.
It’s very easy for that clutter to return – in your closet, garage, or random junk drawer.
Follow the tips for purging your home of the items you don’t need, and then stick at it – it’s the best way to keep your mind free from stress and your happiness levels as high as possible.
Plan Your Way to Happiness
If minimalism is the key to decluttering your brain, then organization is the next step to ensure it stays that way. You can’t eliminate every task and chore from your life, but if you let them run wild, then you’re on the fast track to feelings of anxiety and sadness.
By planning your day, your week, or just your ongoing to-do list, you can control everything you have to accomplish. You won’t lose track and waste time worrying about whether you’ve got everything under control.
Using a bullet journal to jot down notes and lists is a good idea. You’ll help to keep any thoughts of overwhelm at bay, and it can also be satisfying to tick off each task as you complete it. You can also combine this with your gratitude journal so you can reflect on your successes at the end of each day.
Comparisons are one of the easiest ways to feel frustration and jealousy, which don’t exactly lead to positive feelings. Social media has amplified the comparison trap as we’re constantly exposed to the lives of others and bombarded by the successes of others.
Moreso than their failures, there is pressure for people to post more positive stories and paint themselves as happy people. This artificial happiness harms everyone because they aren’t facing up to their true feelings and encourages others to compare their situations less favorably.
If you’re comparing yourself to that friend or family member who seems to be doing much better than you, remember everyone is only truly competing against themselves. Your success isn’t determined by how rich someone else is or how perfect their kids seem.
Accepting you only need to focus on your positive habits in your day-to-day life will make it much easier to find the happiness you seek.
Healthy habits almost always start with our diet. To look after your well-being, you must ensure you get the nutrients you need as part of a balanced diet and not chase happiness through junk food and guilty pleasures.
It’s possible to boost happiness with a few minor tweaks to your eating habits. Increasing the amount of protein you eat and cutting back on sugars and caffeine will help to lower your blood pressure and calm your mind.
Look for healthy, low-fat recipe options. Slow-cooked food is an excellent choice because you start cooking it early, reducing those temptations to seek a false reward through fast food after a busy day. There’s no need to call for a pizza when your dinner is already cooking (and smells delicious, too).
Finally, your approach to happiness and your mindset will have one of the most significant impacts on your negative emotions. Adopting a positive psychology approach and embracing the idea of happiness will help with your optimism.
Practice exercises designed to help with mindfulness – yoga and meditation are the best examples. These allow you to block out any negative thoughts and set boundaries within your mind.
Those who employ a mindful approach are more in tune with their feelings. They can recognize the triggers of anxiety, stress, and sadness and stop those feelings from becoming overpowering. You’ll show compassion and help put yourself on a path to a much happier life.
More Happiness Tips
Other ways you can improve your happiness levels include:
- Finding a new hobby
- Volunteering or helping out around your neighborhood
- Try to unplug from technology, even if only for short periods
- Seek help from a therapist if you are feeling particularly low or have complex triggers for your sadness
No matter what you choose, you can be happier every day.
This article originally appeared on Wealth of Geeks.