This article is a bit different than the rest. It will develop and expand every week, building a step-by-step happiness guide for you. Follow the suggestions that suit you and enhance the plan with your own ideas as well.
Week 1 invest on your energy
Energy and happiness interfere with each other. When I feel happy, I am more energetic and when I'm energetic I feel even better. So, our first aim towards building happiness is investing on our physical and mental energy.
1. Exercise: it increases your physical and spiritual energy levels and is tremendously beneficial to your health. If you haven't been exercising, begun with a 30 minute/day walk and try to increase duration every 2 weeks.
2. Rejuvenating sleep: sleep is one of the most important factors in increasing our energy levels. Turn off the lights, take a few deep breaths and enjoy a 7-8 hour sleep.
3. Space organizing: a clean and organized home or work place makes you feel calm and safe, preserving energy levels. Thus, devote some time to clean and tidy up.
4. Do what you'd like to feel: often the action helps lead us to the desired feeling. For example, a fake laugh eventually turns into a blissful chuckle. Thus, start adding activating in your family schedule (e.g. play with your kids even of you are a bit tired) and feelings will spring up in time.
Week 2 improve your interpersonal relationships
Interpersonal relationships and especially the more intimate ones, are the no1 factor of out happiness. However, when we think about what we'd like to change in our relationships, we usually focus on what the other person does wrong. Here you will find 4 ways to improve yourself; the only person you can change in this particular area.
1. Stop complaining: stop complaining when someone doesn't complete a task the way you'd like to. Share tasks and appreciate the time and energy the other person devotes in completing them -just like you do too.
2. Argue -but in the right way: arguing is inevitable and sometimes even useful. You don't need to fantasize about relationships that lack arguments, as long as you argue the right way. You need to mention exactly what is that doesn't make you feel good at the particular moment and focus on actions and situations, avoiding verbal attacks or labelling.
3. Show your affection: it's not enough to love someone; you need to show it. That means saying it out-loud or showing your affection through kind gestures. Even if love is considered implied (e.g. in long term relationships or between parents and children), expressing your love makes both parties feel beautiful.
Week 3 get close to nature
1. Connect with nature: nature is something higher than human existence. Her beauty, her provision of natural resources crucial to our survival, but also her ability to produce natural disasters, are 3 elements that make us feel admiration, wonder and fear. This is the definition of awe. Connecting with nature will give us a chance to enjoy beauty and feel gratitude. If you live in an urban city, small trips to picturesque natural sights or environmental parks could enhance and sustain the above-mentioned feelings.
2. Learn more about natural disasters: nature can cause great natural disasters that cost lives. Studying natural disasters that led to hardship and death can make us appreciate life (even if it sounds sad and pessimistic) as well as the peacefulness of nature when calm. At the same time, knowing that there is nothing we can do to control natural phenomena and their forcefulness helps us be grateful to wake up in the morning and appreciate the fact that the world is just as we left it the previous night.
3. Green exercise: choose a mild form of exercising (walking, riding a bicycle, etc.) and practice outdoors. Research has shown that mild exercise in nature is beneficial to people who are stressful, depressed or offensive behavior.
Week 4 no one is happy, unless they consider themselves happy
This week we will focus on behaviors that help us build a happy self in practice.
1. Positive comments: use positive comments to describe something (e.g. a movie) or to compliment someone. If you have some negative comments, it's better that they are expressed after the positive ones (the plot was good, but I didn't like the music). Using more positive comments makes you feel better and spread positivity in your environment, making others more prone to express themselves positively too.
2. Extroversion: a misunderstood definition, since many people think it refers to having a lot of friends and talking easily to people. However, a main characteristic of extroverts is that they openly accept positive reactions and respond to them with respect and excitement. Open up and show other people your gratitude.
3. The happiness label: we are generally against labelling, but in this case, it is for a good cause; carrying the label of a happy person and trying to live up to the title can make us happier -without, of course, disregarding other aspects of our self and our live. Decide to be happy today!
Week 5 make the best of your free time
Free time is an excellent chance to seek activities that make us feel happy.
1. Find what entertains you: the first step towards utilizing our free time is to discover activities that make us happy. You may want something creative, something fun, something educational. The list goes on.
2. Steal some free time every day: happy moment should be part of our everyday life. Postponing entertainment e.g. to the weekend or vacation time is not helpful. You have to be happy here and now and not anticipate happiness in a future time while not doing anything to be happy at present.
3. Be a kid for a little bit: people tend to reminisce the freedom and light-heartedness of childhood; a break from troubles and responsibilities. Laughing, dancing or playing a table game helps reduce anxiety and blow off some steam.
Week 6 you can do anything you want, you cannot to everything you want
Being realistic is an inevitable part of a happy life. Here are 3 realistic thoughts that are more optimistic that you thought they'd be.
1. You can do anything you want: trust in yourself and your abilities is a main characteristic of happy people. It’s also true! Anyone can achieve any goal so long as they are properly trained and prepared.
2. You cannot do everything you want: although we have the ability to do anything we want to, it's not feasible to do everything we want within a time frame of 40-50 productive years. For example, someone cannot be a successful chef, businessman, dancer and writer at the same time. He can, however, be successful in one or two professions and keep getting better with time. Don't have unrealistic expectations, because you will keep getting disappointed.
3. Set priorities: to balance the 2 previously mentioned aspects, find what really lights your heart and soul and devote yourself to it -regardless of your age. At the same time, spend your free time with one or two activities you also enjoy. This way you may not have it all, but you will spend your life doing things you want.
Week 7 re-evaluate your relationship with money
Money doesn't bring happiness on its own. However, spending money wisely can contribute to it.
1. Buy useful things: the happiness a purchase offers multiplies on account of how many times you use this item.
2. Invest in happiness: spend money on what makes you happy; activities you enjoy, equipment related to those activities, trips, etc.
3. Spend wisely: you don't need to live in constant fear of not spending more than you're supposed to -that won't contribute to your happiness. You can invest on yourself without guilt as long as it's been planned ahead. For example, 200€ for a 3-day weekend divided by less spending the first 2 days and more the last one if you wish to do so.
Week 8 work life joy
We spend a lot of our time at work every day (8-10 hours) so it's an important aspect of our happiness. Unfortunately, work is a source of stress for many people. Let's see what we can do.
1. Choosing a profession: choosing a profession based on how much we enjoy it and not the salary, will help increase our satisfaction. It's also likely to succeed in making more money from something we strive towards and work hard instead of a job we do simply because the money is sufficiently better. Remember that it's never too late to take a turn, even if you count years of experience in a different profession.
2. Work-hobby: if you cannot work professionally on what you like, there's always a way to work on it as a hobby. And if it's not feasible to work on it, read about it, visit places related to it, etc.
3. Balance: even if you've found your ideal profession, it's important to keep it in balance with the rest of your life. As much as a career fulfils you, spending all your time and energy on it and neglecting other areas of your personal life will tire you out. Experts suggest we can enjoy the psychological benefits of a career by working up to 40 hours a week/8 hours a day.