Your Happiness Strategy

Despite this hectic reality that almost everyone faces, it’s possible to take the pinball machine of life by the gears and actually find happiness in the midst of life’s madness.

The truth is living a happy life is something that you just don’t fantasize about. Rather, it’s something that you must strive to attain. Happiness is really a matter of choice. Despite your full schedule, remember to take things one at a time and find a reason to be happy about. You can chase the future, but don’t let it entirely take away your present.

Perhaps if you pose the same question to everybody you meet, you will get different answers on what happiness is or should be. If you actually sort through the chaos in your timetable, you can pick out the things that matter most to you. These are your priorities – the sequence that you will base your life decisions on and your potential sources of happiness.

Every Day: A Fresh Source of Happiness

Like everybody else, you too can find a number of reasons to be happy about with the life you live in the “Now.” Traveling and seeking adventure can be fun. However, the best way to start is by appreciating your present situation.

Look within yourself and your immediate circumstances. Happiness is within your reach when you try the following activities:

1. Surround yourself with people who love you. Sharing a meal with loved ones is always ideal. However, there are plenty of other ways that you can spend quality time with your family and friends. Try heart-to-heart talks, light and casual updates or even a group game or two over the weekend.

2. Make relaxation one of your daily routines. Break the monotony of chores and long to-do lists from your life. Make it a point to treat yourself to something enjoyable: a relaxing dip in the tub, an hour of playing your favorite PC game, or a few minutes of your night to finish a chapter of a book.

3. Embrace nature’s healing power. The sights, sounds and smell of nature can work wonders on your mood and fill your heart with joy. You get to experience some form of escape from the outside world. As you dwell in your inner thoughts, you then realize that you form part of a greater whole. You are not alone. This feeling of interconnection and belonging should help you shake off a lot of negativity.

4. Sport a can-do attitude in fighting stress. Daily life subjects you to tons of anxieties and stressful situations that can threaten your happiness. Don’t allow these negative incidents to pile up in your system. If you do, you might end up carrying more weight than you could handle. Deal with each situation as it happens. Managing stress this way can help you avoid long-term complications.

Exploring the Unknown

Appreciating your present situation isn’t your only source of happiness. Once you’ve mastered that skill, you can also explore newer avenues to supplement your life tank of happiness. These new avenues do not have to entail drastic changes and realizations. You just have to allow yourself to venture out of your comfort zone occasionally. The spark of new activities and situations will greatly rejuvenate your attitude and mood.

Here are a few tips to help you get started:

1. Survey your hometown. No matter how long you’ve stayed in your neighborhood, treat each day as a chance to discover something new about the place that you call home. Find time to take the small roads and visit the places that you’ve always been curious about but haven’t had the chance to explore yet. You’ll surprise yourself with how much your place has changed: new shops, new recreational centers, new faces and new neighbors.

2. Respond to the call of adventure. If excitement runs in your blood, engage in challenges to boost your adrenalin and self-confidence levels. Go scale a mountain with the local mountaineering club. Try riding a horse. Get wet and wild in a canoeing expedition. If a pampered adventure is more to your liking, consider a temporary change of scenery. Immerse yourself in an unfamiliar culture and indulge in exotic cuisines.

3. Meet and mingle with new faces. Your social life does not have to revolve exclusively around your family members and tight circle of friends. Take advantage of family outings and parties to making new acquaintances and new friends. Chances are there can even be a couple of neighbors who remain strangers to you, so try to find time to honor barbecue invites and group dates.

New opportunities are presenting themselves to you every minute of the day. Heed them and find out how they can make you happy. If you want, you can even come up with your own list of opportunities as well as a list of how you can enjoy each one creatively. Enjoy them as they come along – whether all at once or one by one.

Is Happiness Contagious?

Happiness has the same ripple effect as dropping a pebble in a pond. Its effect radiates outward in ever-greater rings, affecting everyone it touches, brightening each person’s life in turn. Surrounding yourself with happy people, just being near a happy person, even knowing someone who knows a happy person, makes you happier. Happiness is contagious, says Harvard University physician and sociologist Nicholas Christakis.

Using study data that tracked 5,000 people over 20 years, Christakis tracked the path of happiness. He found that being around happy people makes us happier but that contact didn’t need to be direct for happiness to be transferred. The model worked both with social ties, such being around family and friends who were happy, and with simple physical proximity. Just being in the same room or check-out line with a happy person or passing a smiling person on the street allowed enough contact to “catch” happiness.

It’s easy to understand how the happiness of family and close friends can make us happier. The surprise in Christakis’ analysis came in finding that happiness is able to transcend direct links. We become happier not only when our friends are happy; but when the friend of a friend is happy, even if we don’t know or have any direct contact with that person. The bottom line is that surrounding ourselves with happy people makes us happy, makes the people we love happy, and makes the people they love happy.

In addition to spending time with happy people, what can you do to become happier? Try some of these ideas to brighten your day:

• Read a funny book. Dave Barry and Janet Evanovich are tw0 authors who make me laugh out loud.
• Watch a funny movie or a video of your favorite comedian. Tim Allen, Robin Williams and Jeff Foxworthy tickle my funny bone.
• Create your own happiness ripple. Smile at strangers as you walk down the street or through the mall. You’ll be surprised how many smile back.
• Look for the little things in life that give you pleasure and make you smile: leaves blowing in the breeze, birds on a wire, rosy sunsets, a shining sliver of moon.

Happiness is all around if we just look for it. Grab some and pass it along.