All of us struggle with periods of uncertainty, unhappiness, remorse, guilt, and anger. Having been a victim of those emotions for quite a while now, I thought it only apt to try and make an effort to step out of it and move towards positive thoughts and positivity in general. Mind you it takes time and effort to cultivate happiness, there is no “quick fix” for this. But once you do work for it, it will not disappoint you. Here are 5 ways to stay happy and positive!
Enhance your relationships
I watch a lot of TED talks, and many of them talk about how our social relationships are very important to our happiness. If we maintain them well and keep them alive and active, we are surely going to be much happier and have a more positive view than those who don’t. It is also important to identify when you are in a toxic relationship and take measures to exit it. Talking to people is very important to us humans. Believe it or not, sharing things does increase our happiness level as we feel there is someone out there who knows what we’re going through and cares about us. Tip for the introverts out there: If you don’t enjoy sharing (like me), you can start by writing your feelings on paper, then move on to actually telling other people.
Think positive thoughts
We spend a lot of time thinking about all the negative aspects of a certain situation. We have been conditioned to do that. Most of us donot realize that usually a situation has two sides, the positives are equal in number to the negatives. The next time you want to ask that guy/girl out, donot think “what if s/he says no?”, “what if s/he thinks I’m a creep?”. Instead think, “what if s/he says yes?”, “what if s/he actually likes me too?”. When you think happy thoughts, you emit positivity and people are automatically drawn to you.
Help someone else
All of us are pretty busy with our lives, pretty self-involved , always rushing through things, working hard, trying to achieve one goal after the other. Often when we’re in this race, we donot realize that there are other people around us who could benefit by our actions in some way. I say take some time out to help another, be it your family member, a friend, or a complete stranger. Smile at someone new, hug an old friend, take time out to talk to your parents. Keep your phone down and pause your work for a few minutes to appreciate life around you.
Be mindful
Practice the art of mindfulness, which in essence is the act of being fully present. When you are doing work, focus entirely on work, don’t let other things consume your mind. When you are talking to a friend, be fully present, engage actively with him/her. When you want to worry about something, give yourself a certain amount of time where all you do is worry. It sounds easy in theory but isn’t in practice. It takes time to understand the importance of mindfulness and apply it in our lives, but once you start, you will be grateful you did.
Stress=friend
Yes as bizarre as that sounds, it’s important to view stress as something positive and not as the enemy. A TED talk by Kelly McGonigal revealed that people’s perceptions of stress can greatly affect their responses to it. If you feel that your pounding heart and sweaty palms are going to lead to something bad happening, you will view everything from that moment onwards negatively. But if you see it as your body preparing yourself to take on a challenge, you will most certainly be ready to face anything that comes your way.
