How To Stay Happy No Matter What Happens: [8-Step Guide]
In today’s article you’re going to learn everything you need to know about how to stay happy no matter what happens. So let’s begin!
How To Stay Happy No Matter What Happens:
1. Love Yourself & Pride in your Abilities
Loving yourself unconditionally is the key to happiness.
Some people consider those who love themselves as being self-centred but fail to realise the proven fact that your capacity for loving others is directly related to how much you love yourself.
Love begins with you loving yourself first and it’s only when you generate love and it radiates from you’ll you get love in return. When you love yourself, you develop a sense of self-worth and belonging.
When you develop a sense of self-worth, you pride in your own abilities.
To be consistently happy and enjoy a better life, you must love yourself unconditionally, pride in your
own abilities and think about what you do well, not your limitations.
Comparing yourself with others and having the belief that you need to be different from how you are in other to be accepted by them causes nothing but suffering and unhappiness.
You must acknowledge the proven fact that just as they’ve talents and strengths aside from yours, you even have talents and private qualities they don’t have.
Most often than not, comparing yourself with others can be toxic.
If you’re better off than the person you’re comparing yourself with, you develop an unhealthy sense of superiority and if the person is better, you develop an unhealthy sense of inferiority and discredit all the efforts you’ve put in place and the progress you’ve made.
To be genuinely happy consistently, you’ve got to take pride in your expertise, even in the smallest of things and stop the unhealthy comparison.
Also, you need to love yourself unconditionally and learn to accept your body with good grace. Work on those that can be changed and accept those that can’t, there’s no point feeling sorry for yourself.
Do this right now..
- Take a notebook and write out a list of everything that’s awesome about you (even the smallest things).
- Take a good appreciative look at it and commit it to your memory by consistently reading through it.
- Add to your list continuously as you remember more strengths.
By consistently reading through it and committing it to your memory, you develop a new habit of concentrating on strengths and this helps you develop inner conviction of your worthiness, competence and uniqueness as an individual.
Make sure to write even things you may consider to be small things such as you being an efficient shopper, a sympathetic listener, a good cook etc.
They may all look like very small things, but by taking pride in these supposedly small things, you can lead a happier life.
On another paper, make a list of personal qualities (that can be changed) which you wish to develop or acquire and then take each in turn and work on developing those.
Happiness comes when we determine how to acknowledge the things we can’t change and we are placated on what we have and can change.
2. Be Grateful
Gratitude is an incredible technique to create sustainable happiness.
So often, we focus on what we don’t have rather than what we do have and that can make it too easy to take things for granted.
Being grateful is about not taking things for granted and having a sense of appreciation and thankfulness for life.
Many times, we all the time appear to be in a rush, rushing through our daily routines, dealing with the ups and downs that leave one exasperated and not pausing and taking out time to appreciate the supposedly little things that bring about genuine happiness.
The truth however, is that only those who are grateful are genuinely happy, healthier and more fulfilled.
Being grateful for the goodness that’s already evident in your live will bring you a deeper sense of happiness.
Like I wrote earlier in the introduction, good and bad days which are something you don’t have any powers over would come but your response, which is something you have total control over is what keeps you in a consistent state of happiness.
So, next time you have a bad day at work, consider loads of individuals that are out of jobs and are barely surviving.
When u experience a breakup, think of those that are incapable of loving or being loved. That’s the way it works, there’s all the time, all the time something to be grateful and finally happy for.
Self acceptance also stems out of being grateful. We all have many choices in life, one of which is whether to focus on all the things we don’t have (of which there might be many), or to focus on all the things we do have.
It doesn’t mean giving up on yourself, but we all know that they’re some attributes about us that can’t be changed and you may as well accept those right now rather than engaging in self pity that doesn’t change anything and finally leaves you unhappy.
For the disliked aspect of yourself that can be changed, go right ahead and do something about it make the best out of yourself.
Staying grateful also helps you get rid of the barrage of negative thoughts that you’re all the time thinking and worrying about which robs you of your happiness now.
A practical and effective way of staying grateful is to have a gratitude journal and spend some couple of minutes every day writing 5-10 things you’re grateful for in your life right now.
Include both small and large things.
This is a proven way of shifting your mind away from the negative things in your life to the positive things, thereby bringing you a deeper sense of happiness.
3. Commit to a worthy purpose and set realistic goals to reach them
One of the best ways to consistently live happy is to live life on purpose.
Psychological studies in personal performance show that individuals who live on purpose, have plans and goals for their lives are happier and more successful than those who don’t.
A successful and happy life requires that we devote ourselves to fulfilling a worthy life plan, a purpose that inspires and motivates you and provides your life meaning and direction.
The human mind is a goal seeking machine.
We’re goal oriented and designed to seek goals and there’s nothing more soul destroying than drifting through life with nothing to strive for, no ambitions, no goals.
When you find what you love to do and put your heart and soul into it, everything changes.
Everybody has a purpose and if you’re not aware of yours, it’s not because you don’t have one (we all do), it’s because you’ve never looked for it.
It’s lying dormant someplace inside of you, waiting to be revealed.
To be genuinely happy, you need to discover your purpose; what you’re all about and want to attain with your life.
Then design a plan as to where you want to go and how you want to get there. This lets you do things that make you happy.
The idea is actually easy. When you’re fully committed to doing something, and build on your achievements (taking each day at a time), you subconsciously become happier.
Let’s talk a bit about building on your achievements towards achieving your purpose.
Sometimes our dreams appear too big to attain but once we break our big goals into a number of smaller ones, we realise that nothing is actually difficult if it’s broken down into parts.
As each short-range goal becomes a reality, the satisfaction derived from its attainment spurs you on to the next and on and on. Practical goals build confidence and put you more in charge of your life.
This means it’s critically important that you have a plan to attain your purpose.
Designing a plan, which explicitly states the things you want to attain and the step by step goals to get it ensures that your purpose is well clarified and you know what you’re doing.
A well detailed plan does the following:
- Clarifies your purpose.
- Impresses your desires on the unconscious, heighten your awareness and draw your attention to opportunities you may previously have missed.
- Stimulates excitement, anticipation, energy and optimism.
- Helps to keep your mind on what you want.
- Prompt you to obtain new knowledge and skills.
- Helps you discover reservoirs of imagination and creativity you previously didn’t realise you had.
- Ensures that what you’re doing is important.
Now go ahead and follow this step-by-step action plan..
1. Take out time to actually choose what your purpose is. That thing that gives your life a meaning (Remember, genuine happiness comes as a result of you being in pursuit of what you love).
2. Draw out a well detailed plan on how to attain your overall big goal(s). This may require you studying additional resources, depending on what your purpose in life is.
3. Have an everyday to-do list. Make sure you put first things first.
4. Manage your time and priorities.
5. Take each day as it comes.
Doing the above puts you in charge of your life and happy people are those who are in charge of their lives.
Now, just do it. Get your mind fixated on what you want, never lose sight of your goal, and persevere.
4. Meditate
To achieve maximum mental, physical and spiritual potential, we need a system of complete rest, relaxation and inner communication.
Without doing this, we can only expect to operate at a fraction of our potentials as humans.
Meditation has proven to be one of the best ways to attain this with its unique combination of peace and power.
It establishes our contact with the source of power within us and it has tremendous benefits for our mind, body and soul.
During meditation, our minds are cleansed and makes us open to inspiration and inventive ideas to live a better life, revealing to us where we may have gone wrong and guides us back to the right path.
When you put aside a time for medicine each day (preferably in the morning), you get tuned into Life’s force which programs you for the day.
You become fully relaxed and calm, which is crucial for a happy life. In addition to this, it also helps you get rid of the negative feelings (1) which cause stress and unhappiness.
This isn’t an article about meditation but let me run through some important things I’ve found out about meditating, from my personal experience which I feel you would find useful too.
1. Consistency is a crucial factor in achieving best results.
2. A quiet spot is the best place to meditate, this keeps out the noise which saps your memory and destroys your ability to concentrate and communicate with your higher mind.
3. Meditate at a location where you can shut off most of the bright light.
Once you do this consistently, you’ll build up a kind of positive vibration which will helps promote relaxation, calmness and programs you to consistently live a happier life.
5. Nurture Relationships
As humans, we’re social creatures and even the most introverted of us seeks companionship.
To be happy, you need to nurture significant relationships. People who have genuine relationships with others are some of the happiest people.
There’s all the time a happy feel related to having a closely knit family and friends circle, who we can share our experiences with, and feel connected to.
Happy people invest time and energy in their key relationships and have a tendency to be more supportive of other people in their lives.
If you’re going to be genuinely happy consistently, you need to nurture and invest your time and energy in quality relationships.
The main thing is making sure that you create relationships with only positive people. These are the people who will motivate, inspire and help you to live a more creative life.
Avoid negative people at all cost because all they’ll ever do is to drain you of your positive vibes by their constant putdowns and complaints.
One way that you can nurture social relationships is by taking a sincere interest in what people are going through in their lives.
When you share your happiness with these set of individuals, the effect is exponential. When you radiate the positive energy to a higher frequency with the people around you, it will expand.
6. Always Forgive
With your personal relationships, no matter how well nurtured, shit happens, and this is occasionally inevitable.
However, you are fully responsible for the way you respond to everything that happens. Thinking otherwise just keeps you stuck in a victim pattern.
Happiness and inner peace will only be yours when you stop blaming and practise forgiveness.
Forgiveness doesn’t mean condoning what was done, and whether the perpetrators deserve to be forgiven is irrelevant. You do it for yourself and not for them.
They may be utterly culpable but you’re only hurting yourself by hanging on to the bitterness and resentment.
Hatred does you more harm than good.
Hating someone and brooding over it, brings about negative emotions that zap you of positive energy and finally leaves you unhappy.
One effective way of handling issues like this is to tell members of your inner circle instantly they say something that hurts your feelings.
Do it instantly when it happens, you shouldn’t wait till later.
Another thing that can help tremendously is to take the other person’s perspective and compassionately imagine what it feels like to be them and then just forgive all of them the same.
You should also forgive anyone whom you have ever blamed for how your life has turned out including, obviously, your parents or guardians.
If they hurt you, it was most likely because they didn’t know any better.
Just like I wrote above, look at things from their perspective and compassionately imagine what it feels like to them. You do it for yourself and not them
Lastly, you need to be capable to forgive your pasts. If you stay in the past, your mind will get older and bitter.
Be happy. Always forgive.
7. Give
Giving has an incredible effect on your psyche and this is something just about anyone is capable of doing.
We feel better about ourselves when we think about giving rather than receiving, and when we show consideration for others by spreading love and happiness in every way we can.
Helping others without expecting anything back in return triggers happy hormones, and makes you feel good about yourself.
When you’re grateful, you act out of a sense of enough and not shortage and you’re willing to share.
If you can’t give out money, volunteer in a charity or cause you believe in. When we do this, something about us just triggers this happy feel that’s inexplicable.
8. Stay Optimistic & Take out Time to Enjoy Life
19th century Irish poet, Oscar Wilde once said, “Between the optimist and the pessimist, the difference is droll. The optimist sees the doughnut; the pessimist the hole!” Just like every other thing in our life, it’s a choice.
You’ve got to undergo life by being more optimistic (2).
Staying optimistic is about setting positive expectations for the future and the concept is straightforward, when you feel good about the future, you’re going to get engaged and be happy.
Having a positive outlook on life lets you evolve your ideas, improve your situation, and to hope for a better tomorrow.
When you’re optimistic, you begin to see endless opportunities around you, unlike the pessimist who only sees negativity.
In addition to being optimistic, you should take out time to enjoy life.
Continually rushing through life robs it of its savour and flavour. Play and have fun, don’t let time become your master.
You must learn to master time and learn to control it, rather than being mastered by it and make time for the important things. Enjoy what nature has bestowed upon us.
True happiness comes when we slow all the way down to enjoy the stunning moments life brings our way.
Happy people don’t take life too seriously.
Although you have responsibilities, there’s no reason why you can’t approach much of your lives in a playful manner so long as you work with effective to-do lists and take each day as it comes.
If you do, you’ll undoubtedly be happier.
Also, you can increase your happiness level by finding hobbies you like. But I don’t like anything you may say. Well, you’ve got to stop complaining and try new things. There must be something you can enjoy.
If you’re able to snatch the whip of hurry from the hands of time, you regain self-mastery.
I want to thank you for taking the time to read my article about how to stay happy no matter what happens. I sincerely hope its contents have been a good help to you.
