In this world full of stress, everyone has his/her share of problems which are likely to make him/her unhappy. This article provides some basic but effective tips that will help you in coping up with your problems and staying happy
The first and foremost step towards happiness is believing that Happiness is a choice.. Many will argue that happiness is a feeling and, like other feelings, it is temporary as well; it depends on the circumstances that a person is in. It's true that sometimes our circumstances make us sad and there are many factors that pull us down. However, if we believe that happiness is a choice, we will make a conscious effort to get out of that sadness. Being happy can be treated like a habit. As a habit is developed by continuously repeating the same thing, we can train ourselves to be happy over time; we can train ourselves to see the positive side of things no matter what the circumstances are. Some of the basic things which an individual can follow in his/her pursuit of happiness are :-
Stop comparing
Comparison is one of the primary reasons for unhappiness in most of the people's lives. No matter who you are, whether a student or a company employee, if you compare your progress with someone else's, you're bound to be unhappy. When you compare yourself with someone and start competing with him/her in your mind, you are actually working up to his potential not yours. If you are on a task, set a benchmark for yourself that I have to achieve this much by this time. It should not affect you whether the other person is behind you or doing better than you. There is a proverb that "If the grass looks greener on the other side, stop staring, comparing and start watering the grass you are standing on".
Stop complaining
If something is not going right in your life, go make it right. Don't just keep on sitting and complain to others about how bad your life is. It never helps. The more you think about the negative aspects of a situation, the more you complain about it, the unhappier you will get. Moreover, if you always keep on complaining, everyone around will get negative vibes from you; no one wants to be friends with a negative person; it may drive your friends apart from you leading to nothing but unhappiness. When something wrong or unfair happens to you, accept it and then take steps in the direction to overcome it. There is a proverb that "Instead of complaining that the rose bush is full of thorns, be happy the thorn bush has roses."
Set your priorities straight
Every day when you wake up, make a list of things you need to do for the day; prioritize your tasks. Do everything in life, have fun as much as you can, try everything but first of all do what is important. If you want to work on your body, get up early in the morning, exercise for some time and then go on with the rest of your day. If you are a student, before opening facebook, firstly open your books and study for some time; after coming back from school, revise everything and then do whatever you want. If you are a company employee, finish your work as soon as possible. Procrastinating your work till the deadline will make you very anxious as the deadline comes near. If everything is prioritized, you will be able to achieve more and enjoy more at the same time. There is no guilt while enjoying if one completes the important tasks first and living without guilt is absolutely beautiful.
Make good friends
Having good friends can be really soothing in any situation. By good friends, I mean people with whom you can share anything without the fear of being judged. A friend is not the one with whom you are having fun all the time; a real friend is the one in front of whom you can even cry. Make friendships that are deeper than just having fun or partying all the time. Sometimes, there are things that you can't discuss with your family as you don't want them to get worried or because you fear that they might not understand. On the other hand, you can share your each and every problem with a good friend. He/She might not be able to provide you the solution, but you will be assured that you are not alone in any situation; your friend will always be there for you. Often, we get stressed up about things and a lot of negative emotions keep building inside us. Sharing them with a friend helps to let the frustration out and we can start fresh.
Be ambitious
People say that one should be complacent with what he/she have; contentment is happiness. It's not entirely true. One can be discontent and happy at the same time. When you achieve one goal, embrace it, celebrate it and then forget about it. Set another goal for yourself. This is because every accomplishment brings happiness. When you achieve something, you feel really good about yourself and feeling good about yourself is a major step towards being happy.
Keep yourself busy
Most of our negative thoughts occur when we are sitting idle, doing nothing. When we are just sitting, staring at the wall, we start contemplating our lives; we remember things from our past; all the memories flash, some good and some bad but our mind focuses more on the bad stuff. We start thinking that what went wrong and get sad about the things that happened way back. Sometimes, this sadness can be seriously addictive. It doesn't take much time to go from extremely happy to really sad. So, try to keep yourself busy as much as possible. In words of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, "Work is the best antidote to sorrow".
Celebrate your accomplishments
Whenever you achieve something in life, no matter how small, celebrate it and create memories. There will be times when you'll feel invincible; whatever you do, you'll succeed in it. Celebrate each one of your successes as you never know when things start going against you. There may come a time and it certainly will when whatever you do, you'll fail. You'll do everything right but will not be able to succeed. Nature has a weird way of testing us. In those tough times, when you will feel like giving up, when you will be about to break down, the memories that you created in your good times will cheer you up and motivate you to keep going on.
Balance in lifeWhatever you do in life, balance is the most important thing. There is no such thing as right or wrong until you are maintaining a balance between the two. Party all night but don't forget to exercise the next day; eat junk food but take care of your health as well by taking good nutritious food; if you are a student, play your heart out but don't forget to study; connect with people on social networking sites but also go and socialize with people in real life; be a good speaker but also listen when someone else is speaking. There are plenty of things like this. If you try to maintain balance between everything in life, you will always be content and happy with yourself.
Last but not the least, accept yourself. There will be some things about you that you may consider as weaknesses, but they are not actually weaknesses. They are the things that are unique to you and make you who you are. Suppose a person is really emotional and gets affected by little things. He might end up really frustrated thinking that why this happens to me? Why do I get hurt so easily? Why do I feel everything so deeply? Don't be so hard on yourself. You are human and you are bound to have some traits that you don't like. Accept the fact that this is how you are; this is how God has made you. Many people make this mistake; they consider these traits as weaknesses and try to overcome them and on failing to do so end up getting really frustrated.
Accept the fact that there are some things that you just can't change. Accept them and embrace them with open arms. Don't' consider these traits as weaknesses. Make them your strength as they are unique to you. When you are at complete peace with yourself and completely accept yourself, there are very few chances that your happiness will be affected by external factors. Know who you are and don't let the verdict of other people affect your own view about yourself.
