Counseling  ·  Feelings  ·  Mental Health  ·  Repeated cycles  ·  Thoughts

Makes yourself happy: the easy way

09/05/2021

Make yourself happy, the easy way

 

There are some simple small steps which can make you feel happy, these can be done on a regular basis, without having to spend money or achieve high goals.

 
      1. Take on a new hobby. Is there something you’ve been wanting to do and haven’t got around to doing it? Maybe there’s something you always wanted to try and never plucked up the courage to do it. Plan to try out a new hobby, the key to this is to do it on a daily basis even if it’s for 5 minutes per day. This gives you time away from your life, any difficulties, to take time to do something you enjoy; giving you and your mind a break.
 
      1. Volunteer. Spending time to help other people can have great benefits for the person volunteering; there is a lot of evidence to suggest this is true and can be found online. You may find that you don’t have a vast amount of time free, which is okay and there is an alternative to volunteering which adopts a few acts of kindness to others; smiling at a stranger, offering a lift to a friend/family member, buying gloves for a homeless person.
 
      1. Face to Face meetings. As human beings, it’s a need of ours to feel connected to other human’s. In today’s day and age where devices are used to communicate with each other, having face to face meetings seem to be disappearing, especially as it’s easier to stay in touch with people via social media/texts etc. The feeling of meeting someone face to face for lunch/dinner and having a conversation is far different from being behind a phone. In a face to face encounter, you’re able to see your loved one’s voice, see their facial expressions, body language, have deep meaningful conversations or even just have a laugh and joke. Social media/texting takes away from all the above and leaves you on your own, to make assumptions about how something was written or said, this can create issues which didn’t exist.
 
      1. Gratitude. Being grateful for the small things in your life can make you feel better very quickly. Write down these things along with any achievements, when you feel down or sad, read over them and remember these, these things are always overlooked by a negative mindset. If you find you are negative, you’ll find that your mind will look for and remember the negative and very easily overlook the positive. Expressing gratitude can help build bonds in your relationships too.
 
The key thing to remember is to maintain these things on a regular basis, otherwise, you’ll find yourself back into your old patterns of behaviour.
 

The strategies are simple, very cost effective and may be a good resolution to the start of a new week/month. There are of course more than just these four strategies however it’s a good starting point. Don’t forget the golden rule, implement these changes slowly and ensure you do them on a regular basis.