Simple Happy Habits
Small Happy Habits Will Change Your Life
It is extremely easy to allow the mundane aspects of life to cloud our happiness. Sleep, eat, work, bills, eat, sleep. This ritualistic style of living can often cause you to forget to check-in with yourself and actually live your life. Developing small happy habits will help create a foundation for your life that embraces the good, overcomes the difficult, flourishes in the everyday, and creates more joy.
Healthy Habits Do Not Ensure Happiness
We all know that there are healthy and unhealthy habits. Just because you have created a healthy habit does not ensure that your life is anymore happy than before the habit was implemented. Going to the gym, taking walks, writing your gratitude all are likely healthy habits which will ultimately create more joy in your life.
These habits require a somewhat large amount of dedication and time. The reason adding small happy habits into your life is so wonderful is the fact that they can be done throughout your day. You do not need to schedule it into your life, you simply need to be aware .
Transform Mundane Tasks
We all have tasks we ned to complete each and everyday. Whether that is grocery shopping, cooking, working, cleaning, taking care of the kids, adding happiness into those daily tasks will cultivate happiness within you.
When cleaning the dishes at home I found myself annoyed and bitter because my husband would often leave them all for me. In order to make this task less frustrating, and more happy, I found ways to add happiness to my chore.
When I do the dishes now I listen to a positive podcast to help keep my thoughts from staying towards “ugh dishes suck” or “how the heck is this sink always overflowing with dishes, I did them yesterday”.
Instead brewing anger, I allow my mind to be focused on a positive message and the 20 minutes it takes to wash the dishes are 20 minutes spent reflecting on things that build me up, rather than make me irritated for the rest of the day.
Finding ways to integrate happiness into your day can be as small as smiling at everyone you make eye contact with today.
What brings you joy?
As you reflect on that question, begin to think of three small ways you can allow that joy to seep into your daily life. Does it mean listening to a positive podcast while stuck in traffic rather than heavy metal? Does it look like telling one person you are thankful for them while at work? Does it look like spending less time on your phone scrolling through Instagram and more time reading an imaginative book?
The great thing about small happy habits are no matter how busy your day is, there is always time to smile at someone.
Try integrating one happy habit into your life for a week. Once the week is over, take a moment to assess your success.
- Did that actually bring you more joy?
- Was it easy enough that you did implement it?
- What might need to change?
If everything is going well, ask yourself what is another habit you can add in addition to the habit you have begun.
Accountability
As you know, keeping a habit is a lot easier when you have accountability. Invite a close friend to practice happiness with you. Check-in with one another to see how the habit is going. Practice a happy task together, perhaps write “Thank You” notes to a few people.
If that is too much, meet together to grab coffee or tea and simply discuss what you did that brought you joy this week. Send one another uplifting morning text messages. Whatever your accountability looks like, find someone committed and willing to be honest.
Awareness
The goal of happy habits is to bring an awareness back into your life. The bustle of the holiday season, a mundane chore, a fight with a friend, all of these cause you to check-out and go into automatic mode.
It is the same as getting into the car and driving somewhere, when you have arrived, you can not even recall how you go there. You drove in such a daze you simply arrived and completely ignored the journey.
When you integrate happy habits, you are required to break from the automatic. Life is far too short to be lived in a daze.
Conclusion
Happy habits are a simple but effective way to transform your day. By finding small ways to incorporate a little bit more joy into your life (and the lives of those you encounter) create a better day overall.
As you develop this skill, adding more small happy habits will come naturally, some may not even be obvious to you anymore. Make sure that as you progress you continue to reflect. Reflecting may require a close friend to keep you accountable and on track.
Ultimately, your days will be filled with little rays of sunshine. Happiness is a choice and it is something you can take with you wherever you go. Fill your time with joy, and pass it on to others.