5 Happiness Tips

Get a Little More Happiness in Your Life

How you view your life (the events, people and experiences) has a direct impact on your mood. That makes sense, and yet people seem to miss how vital it is.

Please hear that I am not suggesting everyone “just think happy thoughts.” The notion that someone should think “I am so happy: I lost my job, have negative amounts on money in the bank and can’t feed my family. Yeah!” is ridiculous; it is delusional. What I am suggesting, however, is something more helpful. We have all heard the age-old adage: “Is the glass half full or half empty?” If someone sees it as half-full, they are considered an optimist.

If they see it as half empty, they are labeled as a pessimist. But the question I have for you is: which is the absolute truth? The real answer? BOTH. The glass is both half full and half empty.

Viewing it as half full is what I refer to as “realistic optimism.” And this realistic optimism is at the root of The Happiness Challenge.

Article was written by Dr. Elizabeth Lombardo and was the courtesy of 50Plus.

I Think Therefore I Am Happy

How you view your life (the events, people and experiences) has a direct impact on your mood. That makes sense, and yet people seem to miss how vital it is. Please hear that I am not suggesting everyone “just think happy thoughts.”

The notion that someone should think “I am so happy: I lost my job, have negative amounts on money in the bank and can’t feed my family. Yeah!” is ridiculous; it is delusional. What I am suggesting, however, is something more helpful. We have all heard the age-old adage: “Is the glass half full or half empty?”

If someone sees it as half-full, they are considered an optimist. If they see it as half empty, they are labeled as a pessimist. But the question I have for you is: which is the absolute truth? The real answer? BOTH.

The glass is both half full and half empty. Viewing it as half full is what I refer to as “realistic optimism.” And this realistic optimism is at the root of The Happiness Challenge.

The Happiness Challenge

To help become more realistically optimistic and, as a result, happier, take the happiness challenge. Here it is:

1. Identify something that often makes you unhappy.

This could be being stuck in traffic, seeing your child’s room always messy, getting stress from work or anything similar: it just has to lower your mood and happen on a regular basis.

2. Write down three positive ways of looking at the situation. Once you’ve come up with a situation you don’t like, find three ways of seeing it in a positive light and write them down.

Example:

Rush hour traffic	“I’m grateful to have a car.”
Child’s room is a mess	“I’m so lucky to have a child at all – this is only a tiny problem.”
Long line at the store	“I’m in this store because I’ve got enough money to buy things.”
Too much work	“I have a job and I can rely on my colleagues if this really gets to be too much.”
Plane flight cancelled because of bad weather	“I’m happy to be safe on the ground rather than bouncing around in the plane with this storm.”
I have a million things to do on my to-do list and can’t get them all done	“I’m so fortunate that I have the ability to help so many people – including myself.”

Rush hour traffic	“I’m grateful to have a car.”
Child’s room is a mess	“I’m so lucky to have a child at all – this is only a tiny problem.”
Long line at the store	“I’m in this store because I’ve got enough money to buy things.”
Too much work	“I have a job and I can rely on my colleagues if this really gets to be too much.”
Plane flight cancelled because of bad weather	“I’m happy to be safe on the ground rather than bouncing around in the plane with this storm.”
I have a million things to do on my to-do list and can’t get them all done	“I’m so fortunate that I have the ability to help so many people – including myself.”

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