How to Improve Your Happiness Level
by Linda-Ann Stewart
“Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.” Abraham Lincoln
Our western culture pushes the idea that achieving success will bring happiness, when the opposite is actually true. I’m sure you know people who pursue success, money and power, thinking it will bring them happiness. When it doesn’t bring lasting joy, they double down to accumulate more.
In actuality, the elation over a positive event, like a promotion or winning the lottery, is transitory. After a few months, the euphoria wears off, and the person’s level of happiness drops to what it was before the event.
Happiness could be defined as a state of wellbeing, contentment, satisfaction and fulfillment. These attributes depend on whether you have a generally positive mindset or not because happiness and optimism are closely intertwined.
The Good News about Happiness
According to some researchers, about 60% of your happiness comes from heredity and life situations beyond your control. Fear not, however. About 40% of your happiness derives from what you do in your everyday life. This means that much of your happiness is based on the choices you make. Building a well of happiness from within is under your control and more pervasive than seeking it from outside sources.
There are multiple benefits to happiness, beyond just making you feel good. Happiness affects the following and more:
Increases your success. You’re more likely to receive sales, promotions and awards.
Improves your health. Your immunity increases, heart disease decreases, and mental acuity is better as you age.
Opens up doors to greater creativity. When you’re in the flow, you have more mental resources to be inspired.
Causes you to be more productive. You have more energy and seek out more opportunities.
Enhances your relationships. You’re more open, interact better and little annoyances don’t bother you as much.
Builds a positive attitude. You look on the bright side of situations and seek out beneficial solutions.
Strengthens your ability to fulfill your potential. You tap into qualities that allow you to think better and make better decisions.
Raises your vibration. You feel lighter and clearer, therefore your vibration is higher.
Attracts more good to you. Allows you to be a clearer conduit for the Universe and the Law of Attraction.
All of these benefits are within your grasp, based on the choices you make each day. Happiness isn’t just a random occurrence, inspired by a positive experience. The thoughts you focus on develop new neurons and “neurons that fire together, wire together,” creating new connections in your brain. Through repetition of specific thoughts and actions, you can raise and strengthen your level of happiness and optimism.
How to Cultivate Happiness
By keeping your attention on something good, you cultivate new patterns of well being within yourself. And the more you do this, the more you feel good. It’s true that, in your brain, “What you focus on expands.”
Here are 6 ways to build more pathways in your brain to a sense of wellbeing, satisfaction and happiness:
Smile. Not only can a smile be contagious, it activates part of your brain to bring you more contentment. When you smile, your brain releases positive chemicals and hormones to make you feel good. Spend one minute in the morning to smile, and you’ll start the day off well.
Be kind. When you give to others, it also makes you feel good. Being kind activates parts of your brain that bring you a rush of euphoria. Just sending a card or email of appreciation to someone will brighten your day, as well as theirs.
Count Your Blessings. Gratitude stimulates the production of reward and pleasure chemicals in the brain, making you feel upbeat. Studies have found that if you list three things you’re grateful for each day, you’ll notice your happiness and attitude improve within three weeks.
Detailed Gratitude. To deepen the impact of gratitude, each day find one thing that made you happy or grateful and write about it in detail. Spend at least a couple of minutes on this exercise. When you also visualize and savor the experience, this increases the effect and brings even greater satisfaction.
Meditate. Meditation grows the area of your brain responsible for joy. Whether it’s a consistent five minutes a day or longer, meditation will rewire your brain and your brain’s function. All you need to get started is to take long, slow deep breaths, in through your nose, and out through your mouth. Focus on your breathing. If your mind wanders (as it will), just bring it back to your breath.
Build social relationships. When you hang out with friends, this increases your ties with other people and improves your mental health. This can be done in person or virtually. I have several good friends who live a long distance from me, but we stay connected either through the phone or online.
Greater happiness can be yours using these small steps. Consistency will retrain your brain to be happier and build more neural circuits that support joy.
Affirmation:
The Universe wants the best for me. Success may not lead to happiness, but happiness leads to success. Happiness is a natural state for me, well within my grasp. I no longer wait to be happy but choose to be happy, now. What I focus on expands, and as I open myself to more happiness, more flows to me. The Universe supports me in finding simple ways to cultivate happiness in my life now.
Watch the accompanying video, Craft a Sustainable Well of Happiness.
As a focus mentor, hypnotherapist, and writer, Linda-Ann Stewart motivates women entrepreneurs and small business owners to focus and transform their business through deliberate actions that break through distraction and overwhelm to greater success, wellbeing and prosperity.To boost productivity and reduce overwhelm, register for her FREE guide, Design Your Best Day, at https://www.Linda-AnnStewart.com/guide.html You can contact her at LAS@Linda-AnnStewart.com or 928-600-0452.