6 Things To Do Every Single Day For A Happier Life
In today’s busy world, prioritizing has become an essential art, science, and philosophy. With all of our day-to-day obligations it is easy to lose sight of what truly matters. This is why taking some time each day to focus on ourselves is extremely important.
As humans, we are creatures of habit and it is easy to become so entrenched in our outside work that we forget to perform the inner work. This can leave us exhausted with skewed perceptions on what is actually important to us. Neglecting to stay in touch with the reality of our mission and values can also be detrimental to our outside work by diminishing productivity, reducing creativity, and causing negative thoughts to outweigh the positive.
Whether you are looking to improve your positivity, regain sight of your values, or connect better with the world around you, the process is not difficult or time consuming and there are many easy strategies that can be taken to help you move closer to these goals.
These strategies do not take much time out of the day and only require a few minutes per day. They were created for me with the goal of organizing my thoughts while maintaining a healthy relationship with myself and the environment around me.
Ensuring that you perform each one of these strategies at least once throughout the day will have a disproportionately positive return on investment for your life.
MEDITATION OR DEEP BREATHING
Meditation and deep breathing exercises help relax the mind and give us a clearer vision on our internal environment.
Practice 5 minutes of guided meditation through one of the many meditation apps available on your smartphone. My favorite is called “Simple Habit”.
OR
Try 3-5 minutes of a deep breathing technique. My favorite is the 4-4-4-4 box breathing method: 4 second inhaltion, 4 second hold, 4 second exhalation, 4 second hold.
WRITE DOWN YOUR THOUGHTS
Writing down thoughts is an excellent way to organize the clutter in your brain while reiterating the important things you want to accomplish or practice throughout the day.
When you wake up, before you go to sleep, or any time you are feeling stressed or overwhelmed, get out the notebook and write down the following: how you feel, why you feel that way, things you have to do feel less stressed, and any other motivational thoughts or mantras that speak to you.
GO FOR A WALK OUTSIDE
Movement is one of the best forms of medicine. Going for a walk outside can help with blood circulation throughout the body and to the brain while stimulating the release of “feel good” chemicals to help improve our mood.
Whether you have 2 minutes or 2 hours free, get outside and take a walk.
GET OUT OF YOUR COMFORT ZONE
Doing things that we are uncomfortable with is one of the best ways to reduce fear avoidance and improve self-esteem. Over time, getting out of your comfort zone is an easy way to teach yourself that outcomes are usually never as bad you may envision and most of your daily fears/anxieties are fabricated by unreasonable thoughts.
If something makes you nervous or uncomfortable but could provide a positive learning experience, do it. Use fear as a compass and go toward it (within reason, of course).
MAKE SOMEONE’S DAY BETTER
The absolute best way to create happiness for yourself is to give it to someone else. Besides, if everyone did this every day the world would be a much happier place.
Go out of your way to compliment someone. My favorite is to make sure you give a stranger a genuine compliment every single day, which may also count as getting out of your comfort zone in many cases.
TAKE TIME TO BE GRATEFUL
Gratitude is the best motivation. By being grateful for all of the amazing things that life has to offer we are also motivating ourselves to make the most of it. Even if you are having a terrible day and cannot think of anything to be grateful for, the simple fact that you won the biggest lottery of them all and came to exist is pretty incredible. For reference, these odds are said to be 1 in 400,000,000,000,000,000 (1 in 400 quadrillion).
Set aside a few minutes out of the day to count your blessings and think of everything you are grateful for.