Stress Free Living
Choose to Expand Happiness in Your Life
by Linda Hampton Individuals can decide to be constantly happy despite their current circumstances in life. You can either resolve to let the circumstances make you feel upset or you may let it inspire you to overcome the challenges.
If you want to live stress free, you had better find that ability to be joyful which is instinctive in all of us. All babies giggle at no particular reason. Why is it then that as we age, more people get more morose and don’t seem to be able to appreciate the good things in their life. Why is it that as we get older we let external factors influence our mood?
I encourage you to use the following strategies to rediscover happiness:
• Concentrate on the positive view of life. Keep in mind that everyone has problems no matter what their status is. You can however choose how you react to these situations. Scrutinize people and situations to see the good side in them.
• What is it that you’ve always wanted to do but haven’t had the opportunity? Take the first step in achieving your dreams. You can enroll in a college course. Remain motivated and use your drive to reach your goal.
• Do you have a talent that you’re keeping from the world? If you truly believe that this is your purpose in life, then by all means pursue it.
• In those instances when you're extremely stressed, there are many things that you can do to keep yourself from falling into the pit of depression. Contact a close friend. Pour out your feelings. You will find that after a good talk, a burden would be lifted. Will yourself to be happy.
• Make a list of positive aspects in your life you should be grateful for. Sometimes, you’re so focused on your dilemma that you might forget to look at the big picture. Take stock of what you have achieved and consider whatever problems you have right now as tiny hurdles. Think about your family. Your family life may not be ideal but you do have them and you can still change things. Be grateful as well for your career.
• Another effective way to reduce the heaviness of your emotions is to write it down. Keep a journal for your emotions and thoughts. Plenty of times, reading through them will let you decide on the best path to take.
If you have a tendency to view life with pessimism, then you will have to exert more effort to achieve happiness. Nothing can prevent you from putting happiness as the center of your life. It’s a choice that you must take. Self-pity is a habit that takes a lot of discipline to get rid of. As soon as you sense negativity seeping in, learn to identify it, grab it by the neck, and replace your thoughts with positive ones. From this point forward, choose to be happy.
Linda Hampton RN, MSN a Wellness and Stress Management Breakthrough Life Coach is the publisher of Transition Your Life, a free 5-part ecourse full of revealing information to help you deal with the stressful changes in your life. |