Our lives are so busy we sometimes forget to stop and enjoy the small things in life. I’ve put together 10 easy ways add more happiness to your life today! And I’ve thrown in a bonus tip!
Here’s your simple steps for joy:
1. DECIDE that you want to live your life with more joy and happiness. This may sound basic and it is, but so many people are simply unclear in their own minds about what they want. As soon as you become clear, you can “place an order” with the Universe and consciously begin to create the life you truly desire to have.
2. Figure out what you love to do and then do it! This is all about discovering what you are passionate about and putting it into your life. When you love doing something, you will lose all track of time, your heart is happy, and you feel a huge sense of satisfaction. Whether it’s the people you spend time with, the work you choose to do, or the hobbies that you might spend your free time on, the more you can make sure your days include those things you love, the easier it will be to live a joyous life.
3. Write a Joy List that includes the things that bring joy in your life.
It is possible that you have not identified what you love to do so in that case, take some time to write down a list of things that you love doing. Write down things that you can do in 5 minutes, 15 minutes, 30 minutes, one hour, a half day, and a full day. Then when you feel yourself feeling down, you can consult your list and depending on how much time you can manage, put something that you love doing into the day. This can be a fast way to start feeling better and it makes you very conscious of making sure you do have joy in your day.
4. Practice gratitude and appreciation as often as you can! Appreciation is one of the easiest ways to feel better right away. No matter what is going on in your life, you can always find something to be grateful for so use this technique often! When you start to appreciate those things you do have in your life, these will expand as you focus more on it. This is how the Law of Appreciation works.
5. Spend time with someone you love and tell them how much they mean to you! It is natural as human beings to want to connect with others. We are a social creature and need to both give and receive love. Giving your love to others will brighten their day and make you feel good. Letting that person know how much they mean is so important. Do not assume that they know—and even if they do know, it’s always nice to hear that again, out loud, and often!
6. Go outside and enjoy the day and the energy we get from our planet. We only have one Earth and we need to take care of it! We receive so many gifts from this planet that we unfortunately often take for granted. We also tend to spend so much of our time indoors and we’ve become very disconnected from the rhythms of nature. Spending time outside gives us energy, particularly when you are enjoying the beauty of nature. Whether it’s at the beach, in the mountains, in a forest, or just at your local park, go and just appreciate the amazing world we live in.
7. Give to others who do not have it as good as you do. Volunteer your time to a worthy cause that you believe in. When you can give to others and improve someone else’s life in some way, it will naturally make you feel good because you’ve had a positive impact on someone else’s life. Whether you help others you know or total strangers doesn’t matter, just the act of helping some else in need will automatically raise up your energy and make you feel better too. Find a worthy charity or cause that you can get involved in…and this means more than just writing a check. Take an action where you can connect to others to see how you’ve made a difference. This is meant to be an active, not passive, activity because it is in the connecting to others that you will feel the difference you really made in someone else’s life.
8. The shortest distance between two people is a smile. Smile to all those you meet. This is something so basic yet so easily forgotten as we get wrapped up in all the doing and stress of our daily lives. Sharing a smile with another human being connected you and leaves all barriers behind. It’s an automatic reaction that someone will smile back at you. So be generous with your smiles and give as many away every day that you can. Besides, it’s proven that people who smile more live longer and healthier lives!
9. Commit random acts of kindness to make others feel good. Doing something nice for someone you’ll never know has it’s magic too. You know the person that receives your gift will be first surprised, and then happy, and then spend time wondering who on earth could have done such a kind thing. Receiving an unexpected gift will always brighten your day and when you know you’ve given someone that surprise, without them knowing who it came from, will make you feel great—like someone with a big secret that will make you happy too. This is a great practice. Keep it simple by leaving your neighbor some flowers on her doorstep, or paying the toll for the five people behind you, or leaving a very nice, inspiring poem on someone’s windshield. There really are no limits with this one! Creativity rules so have lots of fun with this one! And share your stories with us on how it made you feel!
10. Think of all the good things that happened each day before you go to bed. As you wake up in the morning, before you get out of bed, set the intention for having a great day too. This is a very good habit to form! First practice gratitude as the last thing you do each day by recalling the good things from each day. Time is the one thing we all have the same amount of and once a day is gone, it’s gone forever! So train yourself to appreciate all the good from each day (this is a great exercise to do with your kids every night too!). When you do this at night, you’ll generally wake up in the morning thinking of good things too. I love my snooze button because that gives me 10 minutes to be in a very relaxed state and just imagine and set the intention for a great day. Before your feet even hit the floor, you’ve put yourself in a great energetic place to begin your day. This small habit can make a huge difference in your days and definitely bring a more joyous life to you!
Bonus Tip
11. Read the Bringing Joy series! Of course, I can’t help but recommend the Bringing Joy series. Joy is our wise teacher who can reach all ages. Joy teaches strong values and how to easily apply different tools and traits in your life as well as how to work with the Universal Laws so it is easy to understand and apply to your life right away. Sharing Joy with others opens a dialogue and connects you to your children, your loved ones, and your friends, so that you can share a more joyous life. Joy gives us an awareness and that is what this entire Joy Movement is all about—raising the awareness of how it is possible to live a happy and joyful life. Joy is equal to happiness plus love. Isn’t that what we all want in our lives? Enjoy the Bringing Joy series because it will touch your heart!
To become a part of the Joy Movement, go to BringingJoyToTheWorld.com/joymovement and find some more tools that will help you in living a joyous life. Choose one of these steps and start to make a conscious choice to have more joy in your life. Then be open to allowing the magic to start happening!
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