Happiness is that state of mind where you just know that life is good and you can’t help but acknowledge it through the emotions and feelings of joy, satisfaction, and contentment. We may believe that happiness comes from outer sources, which in most cases can be true, but we often overlook the fact that we can create happiness from within.
What are the habits that can make us happy from the core?
Let’s look into 24 Habits that Help Live a Happy Life
1. Smile
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What a cliche, isn’t it? We smile when we’re happy, but it works the other way around as well! If we smile, it leads to the release of happy hormones in our brains, making us feel happy from within.
2. Exercise
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Exercise, again, is one of those activities which release happy hormones within us. In addition, exercise makes us feel healthy and gives a sense of satisfaction at the end.
3. Be Grateful
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We often forget to count our blessings. Even on days full of misery, if we track down reasons that we should have gratitude in our hearts for, we will find tons of reasons to be happy.
4. Get Enough Sleep
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Sleep is essential for emotional well-being and health in general. If we get the vital amount of sleep that we need, we will feel energetic and uplifted throughout the day.
5. Give Compliments
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Praising people around you can feel as good as it feels to be flattered. Giving genuine compliments to colleagues, classmates, friends, family members or even strangers can make your day as well as the receiver’s.
6. Keep a Journal
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Journaling helps with expressing our thoughts. Writing down what goes on in our mind can make us feel relieved & give us a sense of contentment.
7. De-clutter
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Organizing, cleaning, and eliminating old stuff to make room for the new can feel rewarding and satisfactory. Decluttering in practical life encourages feelings of decluttering mentally as well.
8. Meet Loved Ones
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Making time to meet and spend time with loved ones is essential. Connecting with the ones whom we hold close to our hearts makes us happy, undoubtedly. So, it’s always a good idea to plan out a movie or coffee date with your best friend, sibling, or partner from time to time.
9. Get into Nature
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Spending time in nature is necessary, for we are also just a part of it. This can involve taking a walk, traveling to the mountains or just having a garden of your own. Nature and its greenery are always a source of joy.
10. Meditate
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Meditation can be a great source of satisfaction and fulfillment if done with consistency. It calms us down, reduces stress and anxiety, and keeps our emotional well-being uplifted.
11. Get Therapy
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Sometimes, we need professionals to get us through our misery and that is alright. Even if we’re not dealing with something miserable, we can still stay in touch with a therapist and have sessions from time to time to connect with ourselves and keep check on our mental health.
12. Take Yourself on Dates
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Spending time with ourselves is just as important as spending time with our loved ones. Enjoying our favorite meal or movie all by ourselves is never a crime! It’s one of the best things that we can ever do.
13. Take Care of Your Body
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Adding onto the last point, taking care of our own body is essential and it also feels really good. So, a skin-care or hair-care routine now and then can indeed be the cause of contentment.
14. Eat Healthy
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Eating mindlessly might feel good at the moment but eventually, it leads to feelings of guilt and regret. So, it’s important to eat mindfully and to eat right. It feels satisfactory and provides us with good mental and physical health.
15. Be Mindful
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Our mind wanders off half of the time, it either dwells on the past or creates anxiety about the future. To be truly happy, we need to let go, stay detached, and be mindful. Mindfulness encourages us to appreciate our surroundings and enjoy life to the fullest at the very moment.
16. Spend Time on Hobbies
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What is something that you truly enjoy? Things that we love to do are the things that make us genuinely happy. Be it singing, cooking, sewing, or creating a new sketch, if it makes you happy, make time for it.
17. Forgive
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Sometimes, we hold grudges towards people who hurt us or even towards ourselves for the things that we’ve done or said in the past. If we create a daily habit of forgiving ourselves and the people who once hurt us, even without receiving an apology, we will vibrate with nothing but purity and positivity.
18. Help Others
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Always have good intentions within yourself and never miss a chance to help others. Make sure that you’re lending a hand to those in need. Whatever you give to the universe, it finds its way back to you. So, helping a person will always give you a sense of happiness.
19. Keep Healthy Boundaries
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Remember to respect yourself and keep healthy boundaries. Don’t give people the power to bring you down. Whatever a person does reflects their inner self, so there is no need to take that personally. We create our reality and happiness, that key should only belong to ourselves. Eliminate expectations from anyone, and see yourself turning happier.
20. Do Your Best
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No matter what, make sure to do your best without stressing about the outcome. From loving unconditionally to completing the syllabus on time, make sure that you’re doing what you can in the best way possible. This leaves us with a sense of confidence, contentment, and satisfaction.
21. Breathe Deeply
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Anytime we feel stressed, the best way to deal with it is to take long, deep breaths. It relaxes our tensed muscles and calms us down.
22. Avoid Comparison
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We are unique in our own way and that’s our biggest power, once we realize this and stop comparing ourselves with other people, we indeed will be truly happy.
23. Face Life Without Fear
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Most of our sadness comes from anxiety. Let life be, see what it has in store for you. As long as you have yourself, there is nothing that you have to fear.
24. Learn and Let Go
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Don’t dwell on the lessons of life, learn whatever life is trying to teach you, let go, and move as a wiser person. Spend life with grace.
Happiness is all about shifting our perspectives and looking at the good sides while keeping the sources of joy open. Happiness is what we create out of it. Life is a piece of blank paper, on which we can draw to our heart’s content, now what we choose to draw is in our hands. Misery is an inevitable part of life, we have to acknowledge it and still make choices that can help us overcome the aches of human living and lead us to the paths of pure happiness.
Read also – 24 Heart Healthy Foods