happy

Are you really living or just surviving?

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imageI feel particularly inspired these days so I decided to share with you the ultimate secret of achieving a state of wellbeing and happiness. Although these things may not seem like much, practise them for a week and you will start seeing big improvements in your life – I promise.

I’ve put below a few tips&tricks I use and that have worked great for me until now, although I still have much improving to do myself. I hope you will consider them as mind blowing as I did when I discovered each and every one of them.

1. Stop comparing yourself to others. Whoever said comparison is the thief of joy was utterly right – the only person you need to compete with is yourself. Do everyday something that improves the person you were the day before, even if that means learning a word in another language or learning to cook a new recipe, nothing is too small to count because anything you learn makes you better than yesterday.

2. Mind your own business. Have you ever met people that complain about their lives but then after 10 minutes start saying about how much richer/healthier/smarter/fitter X or Y is? Well, newsflash: if you’d spend the time you do bitching and complaining, investing in self-growth maybe you would be the same as X and Y is. I honestly believe that anyone has the chance to improve and become the person they want to. Plus, it is none of your business what X and Y do because guess what: everyone is free to live their life as they please.

3. Set a goal. Reaching a goal makes you feel strong and confident. You don’t have to set huge goals like learning Chinese (although that would be awesome). Start small – set a goal to put 1 spoon of sugar in your coffee instead of 2 and keep it up for a month or set a goal to watch TV only 1 hour a day (or not at all). Anything that seems acceptable to you – track your goal and let me know how you feel after a month.

4. Cut toxic people out of your life. That annoying colleague that is always complaining and everytime you talk he only talks about how bad his life is going – cut him out. Tell him you have stuff to do and stop listening to him. These kind of people ruin your good mood and transmit you negative energy so it’s better to suround yourself with positive, happy, strong people that tend not to let their worries and stress become bigger than their sentiment of content and gratefulness towards life.

5. Be thankful. Everyday. I mean it – every night before going to bed be thankful for everything that happened during the day. Even the bad stuff, if nothing else, they thought you a lesson and you’ll know better next time.

6. Work hard. Yes, that is actually a way to be happy. By working hard you will actually get results and by getting resilts you will feel good about yourself, hence more confident. You hate your job? This is the moment to start looking for another one or to start your own business. Life is too short to waste 8 hours a day in a place where you don’t want to be.

7. Give yourself a break. Don’t be to harsh on yourself, as long as you are trying your best, you deserve a break from time to time. After you’ve accomplished something or you passed a hard period, allow youself a moment of reward – a drink from your favourite coffee place, those shoes you’ve been watching in a window or tickets to see your favourite band – anything that will make you want to set more goals and accomplish more. And don’t feel guily, you deserve it!

8. Use your free time doing something useful. I have to admit I am stuggling a bit with this one. I usually spend my free time on Pinterest and although that inspires me in some areas such as home decor, architecture or design, it doesn’t really help me. Procrastination is bad – why not use your free time to cultivate a new hobby, learn a new language, learn how to cook a new recipe or why not, work at a personal project.

9. Suround yourself with beautiful things. Some might say this is superficial but I believe seing nice things all around is good for your state of mind. Maybe buy a new set of curtains in your favourite colour, have a plant that makes beautiful flowers, go to a nice restaurant, spend a weekend in a beautiful place and the list can go on, you get the point – something that will please you eyes and your love of beauty.

10. Observe. Be curious about anything and everything. Look around you when you walk on the street. Observe people, their reactions, animals, trees, cars. You will be amazed how many things you can figure out by just observing the world. I tend to look at the people I share the train to work and try to figure out what they are thinking or how they are like. Ocasionally, my eyes meet someone elses and we both smile – that is when I feel that life is a special gift that has been given to us and that it’s worth exploring.

11. Don’t expect other people to make you happy. Happiness is an inside job, if you are not content with yourself, there is no chance someone else can make you feel different, at least not for long.

12. Stop postponing things. Do stuff when you are supposed to, that way you get them out of your mind and have nothing to worry about. Also, life has a way of surpring us so you never know what tomorrow might bring you, keep a clean page for each day to write on.

13. Finally, decide to be happy. Wake up every morning deciding that today you will be nothing less than happy and do not let anyone else change your mind. Whoever tries to bring you down only means they are below you. Nobody can make you feel bad unless you allow them. You are the only one in charge of your state of mind – what are you going to decide today?