Happiness is something pursed by many people but few are those who manage to find happiness in their lives. How to find happiness is a process that can be both long and short term. You can find happiness from the little things of everyday life but you can also change your life and your way of thinking  and find happiness in the long term. Happiness is like butterflies, some writers say. “Happiness is like a butterfly which, when pursued, is always beyond our grasp, but, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you”. Psychologists on the other hand do not believe that, but believe that happiness depends on us and can be built with our efforts. This article outlines 20 hacks on how to find happiness in your daily life but also 7 ways that you can prepare your self for a happy life.

We can choose to be happy by changing our thoughts and way of thinking. We can hunt happiness. To find happiness we have to limit the negative thoughts, such as pessimism, the abhorrence and anger. At the same time we should strengthen positive emotions such as compassion, peace and especially gratitude.

Recent surveys showed that our personal well-being and happiness depends to a minimum degree on goods such as health, wealth, good appearance or social status. Happiness seems to be related to the way we live our lives with those things that we have already.

Remember the theory of «set point» associated with the weight. This theory suggests that weight loss is only a temporary phenomenon. People for example, make diet and lose weight for a temporary period, in a given period they return to their normal weight. This theory seems to apply also to the question of happiness. We tend to go back to our normal levels of happiness. We knew that we have a thermostat in the house and car, now we learned that we have a «thermostat happiness» in our brains, which adjusts the «ups and downs» caused by various life events.

Other recent research suggests that the answer to the question: “how to find happiness” is found partly in our genes. From this we can conclude that genes determine to a certain point our level of happiness, except for some cases of course. For example, excessive poverty for a long unsettled period may affect the level of happiness.

If you feel disappointed that you were not born with an abundance of genes and still wondering how to find happiness, do not be discouraged. Remember that genes do not determine to the full extent the level of happiness you are able to experience, but only to a certain degree. Genes simply give us a great resource, which can be processed. It depends how we will use this resource to find happiness.

To use another analogy, suppose you live in a house, which you have inherited from your parents. It is up to you to decide in which part of the house you want to live. You can live in the basement, which is dark and dirty, or in the top floor of the house, which is bright and shiny and has a wonderful view of the ocean!

The desire to find happiness can help us, but also has the power to harm us. It can help us when we are encouraged to achieve positive and worthy goals. But the desire can become infinite and continuous. The uncontrollable desire may become a permanent source of misery. Therefore, at some point in the conquest of material goods and personal fulfillment, pleasure and satisfaction is necessary to maintain a certain level of happiness.

Happiness comes from whether someone can meet the challenges set by his family, work and other responsibilities and obligations. But in order to feel satisfied, you must be in a receptive mental state. Similarly, you won’t find happiness from a perfect job, a perfect family or a perfect society. Happiness is the result of our efforts to achieve something perfect and when we feel that we live a productive life.

How to find happiness in a productive life? The life we live is productive when we know our potential and when we use it for a good cause.

Try to see your work and family as your own personal mission. Consider the services you offer to others as part of your personal integration. Deal with projects that are in line with your values and help yourself to get the skills and abilities to move to the next high level.

The more challenges you can manage and the more you are using your personal abilities, the more will be the positive emotions that will enter your life, the more chances your have to find happiness.

How to find happiness – 7 Steps

1. Desire for the conquest of happiness

The first step on how to find happiness is a conscious choice to be happy. According to psychologists, the intention is the active desire and commitment for someone to be happy. It is the choice of activities that make us happy and the adoption of behaviours that lead us to happiness and not in misery.

For example, you may need to reconsider your values and beliefs. To learn to properly use you’re communication skills or your abilities and skills in the workplace. Moreover, you can choose to be in an environment with people who raise your chances for happiness.

The management of our emotions as well as our relations with others is a key factor on how to find happiness.

When someone takes the decision to be happy, must pursue strategies that will help him in this direction.

2. Gratitude

One strategy that can help is that of ‘exercise of gratitude’, as the psychologists suggest. One may note in a paper the things that feel grateful. This list removes people from the bitterness and despair, and promotes happiness.

3. Forgiveness

To have negative feelings for someone can have adverse effects on our mental and physical health, as many studies show. One way to reduce these effects is the forgiveness of others. This reduces the power of negative events that create bitterness and loathing. It is a big step on how to find happiness.

4. Overcoming negative thoughts and feelings

The fourth way on how to find happiness is to eliminate the negative thoughts and emotions. A person can exercise control over negative emotions and thoughts. There are many ways to do it but needs a lot of work. Someone, for example, may choose meditation, yoga or relaxation techniques to become calm. People can learn to recognize the thoughts that give them feelings of weakness or failure.

5. Money does not buy happiness

This is something you must have heart many times. You cannot find happiness with money. As surveys show, the money does not guarantee happiness. Having overcome the poverty level, the extra money offers little in terms of happiness. Despite the efforts we make to make money, psychologists say that money will not ever guarantee a permanent state of happiness.

6. Strengthening of friendships

The cultivation of friendly relations is still one of the best ways to find happiness. There are only a few antidotes to the unhappiness that are better than friendship and relationship with people who care. Research in Australia revealed that people over 70 years who had the strongest network of friends lived much longer. The social ties, protect us from depression and provide support in difficult times.

7. Being active and not passive

The participation in activities that are meaningful can help you to find happiness. In such cases, the brain is absorbed in activities that are meaningful and challenging for the abilities of the individual. As shown in surveys, watching television provides one of the lowest levels of happiness.

Every useful activity requires increased attention at the beginning before it starts to become enjoyable.

20 hacks on how to find happiness in everyday life activities

Besides the 7 steps, on how to find happiness, there are simple hacks you can do in your everyday life and find happiness. The happiest people in the world are not those who have perfect lives, but those who have learned to enjoy things that do not reach perfection. Some things that you do not pay attention to can give great pleasure in your life and help you find instant happiness. Enjoy the small pleasures of life!

1. Wake up early to watch the sunrise and the night turning into day.

2. Think of those you love, those who love you, which help you and be happy that you had the chance to meet them.

3. Observe the moving clouds, the waves of the sea, and the flowers of your garden.

4. Smile! Enjoy the scent of flowers, the fresh sweet, and your aroma. Taste a bit of chocolate. Observe your child or your beloved while sleeping.

5. Plant a tree, and take care of it.

6. Remember that you have a body: breathe deeply, exercise, and sit on the noses of your feet.

7. Remember a desire that you had as a child. It is never too late to make it.

8. Dress with bright, warm colours.

9. Make someone happy for a day.

10. Erase from your memory the evil.

11. Sit next to the sea and let the waves touch your feet.

12. Go to the cinema and enjoy a movie.

13. Listen to your favorite music. Let yourself be carried away from your favorite melody to remember things that made you impressed.

14. Call a friend who had time to listen.

15. Eliminate your work stress, do things that give you pleasure.

16. Place in your office some flowers, a photograph.

17. Write on a piece of paper how much you love your partner and hide the paper in his/her pocket.

18. Try to do something new: sing a song, play a game, get on a bicycle, taste a new sweet full of calories.

19. Prepare your luggage and go on vacation by closing your mobile for a weekend.

20. Walk in the rain. Look at the sky, feel the rain!

How to find happiness is a process that you can control, is not something that depends entirely on luck. Some people are lucky enough to have genes that promote happiness. Other people have to work hard and be optimistic that eventually they will find happiness in their lives.

image source: bekah_richards

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In life all people seek and pursue success in what they want. To succeed, however, is necessary to be ready to change your life. In order to do that you need to clarify what you want, and set clearly defined goals and objectives. People who succeed are those who spend some time to think and record what they really want to achieve in their life. By doing so they are able to continually refer to their goals and have always in their mind, the objectives and priorities set.

The result is that they manage to focus on their goals. They do not unfairly waste their energy in other situations that does not allow them to achieve their targets.

The setting of goals and priorities is therefore a very important process that must take place at the beginning. It serves as a road map that will allow you not to get lost in the maze of situations arising in daily life.

How then can you set your goals, how can you record and make your own road map to reach the success you want and manage to change your life?

What hacks and techniques can you use so as not to be misled and be able to deal with all sorts of obstacles that will come across?

1. Make sure that the goals you set are something you really want and it is not just something that sounds cool or it’s nice to achieve

When your goals represent something that you want strongly, then your subconscious will help you find the right people, places and conditions that are essential for achieving your goals.

Set goals on key areas of your life: For your family and home, for your professional career, your financial condition, your physical and mental health and other areas that are priorities for you as the spiritual, religious life, culture or education.

2. It is necessary to record your goals and refer to them regularly

Create your own road map, according to what you want.

By writing down your goals it helps you clarify your thoughts better and form a clearer picture in your mind. At the same time you can re-visit your target list, if possible every day, to see your goals and remember what you want to really succeed in your life.

3. Record what you will gain by achieving each of your goals

This will enhance your morale during the difficult times that you will inevitably encounter. Think and write as many reasons as possible about the benefits you will gain by achieving all your goals.

Later, when you read the plan, your road map, you will have stronger incentives that will push you towards your goals.

4. Visualize your success

It is very important to try visualizing in your mind that you have achieved your goals. For example, if you aim to get a house, close your eyes and visualize your new home. Form a mental image and bring it in your mind regularly.

This technique helps because it operates in your subconscious and thus will help you in your daily actions to achieve your goals.

5. Always aim high

The higher you set the bar the more you will achieve. Even if you do not achieve your goals entirety because you have set high goals, you will reach inevitably high.

It is necessary that your goals are not conflicting or unrealistic. For example you cannot set a goal to buy a house that is 15 or 20 times your annual income.

6. Take action today do not postpone it

When you set your goals and specify your action plan, do not delay, but start working on it. Time is valuable and your well thought and planned moves should not be postponed but bring you closer to your goals.

7. Anticipate that you will encounter difficulties

In the attempt to change your life is normal to find in your way many difficulties, challenges and adversity. Because you are bound to encounter difficulties, try in advance to see what difficulties you will find and consider ways to address them.

This practice will prepare you to effectively handle the constraints, with less stress and risk of errors. The parallel analysis of the possible difficulties and thinking of ways to address them will help you avoid many of these.

8. Make relations with successful, motivated people

Create friends and allies, and improve your relations with people around you.

The human relationships are the most valuable asset you have.

9. Be careful to whom you talk about your goals

Do not discuss your goals with anyone. People in your family, friends or others you know may have a negative approach and may disappoint you. There are people who do not set goals to reach higher and are not able to understand you or give you ideas that will help you. Discuss your goals with people who have a key role in achieving your goals.

10. Every time you take a decision, ask your self if this decision gets you closer or further away from your goals

To be able to take the right decisions, that will lead you towards your own road map and closer in achieving your goals, you need to often refer to your goals and use the technique of visualization.

This will make it easier for you when you need to take a decision and you will have to respond to your internal question whether this decision will take you closer or further away from your goals.

11. The change of goals is not necessarily a bad thing

During the course of action you may realize that due to certain situations, you have to modify or change one of your goals.

This is not necessarily bad. Instead you can consider this as a form of success because you understood early that it is in your interest to change something in your strategy.

In conclusion we emphasize that if you spend a little time to set your goals and consider the strategy to follow, then you will be able to take the big step to change your life and reach higher levels of success.

But remember that changing your life and how to be successful in life is difficult, requires discipline, concentration and clear goals about what you want to achieve.

image source: mickeyd600

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Who is your worst enemy? Perhaps the psychological and mental stress – that probably inadvertently-create to your self? Stress is a normal reaction of ourselves in difficult or irregular situations where we feel that our capabilities are not sufficient to deal with an obstacle or an encountered difficulty.

However, how you react to stress may be either normal, so the effects of stress are minimum, or very intense, leading to various psychological and mental problems.

Everyone has the experience to have lost patience with someone else, be annoyed because of traffic, yelling to someone who was not to blame or give rise to misunderstandings, irritation and mental stress because the pressure he/she feels affects the judgment.

Some people create such situations occasionally in their life, while others make this self-sabotage a lifestyle, constantly creating psychological and mental stress, without realizing that they are the major cause of stress in their life and not the facts or other people.

There are many ways to cause stress to your self without understanding it. The most important are:

It is a matter of personality

People with personality type «A» are having a particular pattern of behaviour: they are always in a hurry, they are constantly «moving»-literally and figuratively – they are aggressive, nervous and always tensed. These characteristics of type «A» cause severe emotional stress in their relationships because of their aggressive attitude. These persons are not only unhappy in their relationships, but they also often fail to see the obvious solutions to various problems because they are always in a hurry and they do not give attention to details. The result is that they create even greater problems. People with this personality usually encounter continuous health problems, especially cardiovascular and stress for them is one of the major causes of heart disease.

Negative Thinking

Another way in which people often create stress to themselves is through negative thinking. The way we talk to ourselves, which usually develops in childhood, can follow us throughout our life and colour our experiences, either as a sunbeam or a black cloud that surrounds us and prevent our vision. People with negative thinking usually see problems around them, they believe that others have always negative incentives and intentions, they interpret positive events as negative, they find only problems and lose the important benefits and positive things in life, and this is only due to their constant persistence in negative thinking. People who are thinking negative believe that they do not have the abilities to meet the various difficult situations and to deal with stress, thus creating even more unresolved stress in their lives.

Aggressiveness

Are you sometimes aggressive towards others when you could handle the same situation in a positive way? Do you always start a conversation by saying «why you did not…” rather than asking directly, i.e. without the negative «not», «did you…”. Or maybe you have a passive attitude and you let others take advantage of you because you do not know how to say no and set your limits? Confrontation and disagreements with others are a part of life, as well as the issues to be resolved. The way in which you deal with the various conflicts can strengthen or weaken your relationships creating excess psychological and mental stress for all concerned, ultimately creating even greater conflicts and problems.

Many people who are aggressive and not handling the various conflicts in a positive way, they do not realize their aggressive behavior and do not realize that they sabotage not only themselves but also their relations. Usually these people do not know other ways to handle situations.

Pessimism

If you are a pessimistic person, you tend to see things worse than they are, and you cannot see the opportunities presented, you believe that everything will have a negative outcome, you see only the problems and disadvantages, and not the opportunities and advantages, so the lack of self confidence and self esteem creates mental and emotional stress. The pessimism is more than to see the glass as half-empty: it is how you vision the world and life, it is the undermining of self-confidence, which makes you unable to believe in your capabilities, which creates doubts and creates additional health problems.

Too many responsibilities

Do you have a very heavy schedule, many responsibilities and tasks with intense stress? Many people create intense stress in their lives because they do not handle their time and obligations with priority for themselves. This is because either they are personality type «A» or because they do not know how to say no. All these create them chronic stress and the main reason is because they are undertaking more tasks than they can handle.

Inability to change your life

To change one of these negative habits, you must first identify and realize how you sabotage your self. You need to have the courage and strength to identify why you are causing stress to your life and find those ways to get rid of it. This will require you to take the big step and change your life. You need to be ready both physiologically and mentally. Ways to prepare your life for a change are relaxation, positive thinking, optimistic attitude to life and proper organization and planning.

Simple Hacks to on how to get rid of stress quickly

Healthy Diet

Eating healthy is one of the best methods to set a foundation for a de stress and better life.

• Limit the maximum amount of caffeine to five cups a day (also tea, chocolate and cola drinks, because they also contain caffeine).
• Eating regular meals.
• Minimize the use of salt (especially for people with hypertension or family history of hypertension).
• Avoid the over consumption of alcohol. It is scientifically proven that consuming large quantities of alcohol will increase stress and cause sleep disorders.
• Stop smoking. Many people have the misconception that smoking contributes to relaxation. In reality smoking actually increases stress levels.
• Eat foods rich in protein (fish, eggs, poultry). The proteins are broken into amino acid during the process of digestion. A particular amino acid, the tyrosine, contributes to the increase of chemicals dopamine and epinephrine, which have the ability to give the body more energy.
• Eat foods rich in carbohydrates (cereal, pasta, fruits and vegetables). Carbohydrates, during the digestion process create serotonin, a substance that causes a sense of relaxation and makes you calm.

Physical Exercise

The reaction to stress is a way that nature prepares the body for action. However, the normal physical reaction is often not useful to address the stress of modern life. Including regular exercise in your daily program will help you release the tension and will also satisfy the needs of your body for activity. Any physical activity is beneficial, such as:

• Walking
• Swimming
• Running
• Team sports
• Gardening

How does the exercise can helps you get rid of stress in your life?

Exercise can help you feel good, it makes you relaxed, and enables creativity. Raises the basic level of physical health and helps you handle the daily requirements and crisis. However, before you start exercising, you need first to consult with your doctor in case you have health problems, or you are overweight or if you are concerned about pain in the joints (back, knees, hips).

Relaxation

Relaxation is a way to create a relaxed body and a calm spirit. This physical and mental defuse is called relaxation and is contrary to the stress reaction. People who live in high intensity are more likely to experience problems when their stress levels increases. These people can lower the general level of stress with regular relaxing exercises and thus protect their body and mind from excessive stress. In doing so, they can tolerate more worries without creating more stress problems. Relaxation is a useful tool, whether used alone or together with other strategies to get rid of stress.
The only things you need to relax are:

• An environment free from noises and interruptions
• Free time
• A body position that can help you get rid of the muscle tension
• A good night sleep. To have a good night sleep you need to select the proper pillow. Pillow health is very important if you want to have a relaxing sleep.

Relaxation can also mean:

• Massage
• Light exercise – some types of light exercise or loose rhythmic motion can play a role for enhancing relaxation with the release of physical tension.
• Listening to music
• Walking your pet.
• Taking a nap
• Reading a good book.

Some other quick and easy ways to get rid of stress are:

• To use a quiet and pleasant sound alarm to a wake you up
• Having a good breakfast
• Every time you watch the clock, take a deep inhalation
• Reducing the speed with which you eat, talk, or move
• Do not arrange to do many things one immediately after the other or at the same time.
• Take a break from work, to walk, relax or enjoy the moment.
• Give yourself time to do things that give you pleasure.
• Learn to say NO, but certainly not in all cases. People who can say NO often say YES and feel happy about it.
• Control and lower your anger against others – tolerance and acceptance are good to your health.

image source:chitrasudar

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