6 Secrets About Happiness That No One Tells You
Happiness – it always seems so near and yet so far. Being happy is unfortunately not a permanent state, it’s more like a precious and fleeting snapshot we are only sometimes granted. How we feel is not something we can force or initiate with the power of our thoughts. However, the feeling of happiness is not a purely emotional state.
Hormones such as serotonin play a role, as do health and a life in balance. Happiness also appreciates orderly circumstances and ample space to do its wonders and flourish. If happiness is a bird as the ancient poets said, we can at least prepare a nest for it where it can temporarily settle and rest its wings. In this article we present six things you can do yourself to attract happiness into your life.
1. Unhappy at work? Use actions instead of words
Your work week consists of Fridays? On Saturday you have a stomach ache when you think about Monday? The fact that eight hours is not a whole day has not comforted you for a long time? Then it's time to reexamine your livelihood. We spend a not inconsiderable amount of our precious life time at work.
There, very few of us just do our job like on an assembly line, but we’re also exposed to interpersonal interactions and, time and again, the odd drama. That's only natural; after all, it's called a workplace, not a living room or a regular pub. Nevertheless, it is advisable to pull the emergency brake at a certain level of suffering.
No one can take this decision off your hands, and it won't help if you're constantly nagging your loved ones about how much your job is annoying, stressing or scaring you. However, you should think twice about skipping work, unless you are financially independent or can rely on the help of partners or family. If you're going to take action here, carry out an orderly withdrawal along the following lines.
Step one: Calculate your fixed costs and think about where you might be able to save.
Step two: Start looking for an alternative, unobtrusively but steadily.
Step three: If you can't see the forest for the trees yourself, get professional help; a therapist or life coach will give you just that: An objective view from above or rather from the outside. You can't do anything wrong, unless you do exactly that by doing nothing.
2. Indulge in the sleep of the righteous and happy
Numerous studies have proven it: sufficient good sleep not only strengthens our immune system, it also has an extremely positive effect on our mood. Depression and bad moods have been proven to have less chance thanks to restful sleep. Try to use your bedroom, if possible, really only for sleeping (the first most wonderful activity in the world excluded, of course).
A TV, laptop, ironing board and so on have no place in your bedroom. You should be able to black it out completely. Your body needs the illusion of night to get into quality deep sleep. If possible, remove all electrical devices from nightstands and the like. Replace your smartphone alarm clock with one that runs on battery power only.
You'll soon feel the difference and be able to spend restful hours in Morpheus' arms. These will give you the ideal conditions for a high the next day. After all, feeling good is a prerequisite for feeling happy.
3. Exercise in the fresh air
Your body isn't made for sitting and lying down, humans are meant to live a life of movement. This doesn't have to be a bone-chilling workout – just taking a brisk walk for an hour will stimulate a circulatory system, boost serotonin production and get you sweating profusely. All these purely physical processes have a direct influence on your psyche. Use the shower afterwards as an instant meditation that washes away all negativity.
4. Happy is he who does good
Since the end of the 19th century, it has been scientifically proven what we have always suspected: Social engagement is less an act of charity than of self-love. The sociologist Thorstein Veblen pointed out these facts to our affluent society in a striking and unsparing way in his cult book "The Theory of the Leisure Class.”
The good deed comes back to us in time, like a beautiful boomerang in the form of feelings of happiness. Try it out, you don't even have to leave the house. Thanks to online banking you can do good anytime from your sofa, good feeling guaranteed. If you'd rather pitch in and volunteer yourself, don't be too naïve about it. It will make you happy in the long run, but you shouldn't expect gratitude.
5. Surround yourself with mood music
This tip is simple, old, but still good. Music can put us in an emotional high or make us fall into a deep black hole, depending. If you want to get in a good mood quickly and easily, put on your favorite rhythms. Whether it's Mozart or dance hits of the 70s, whatever you like, whatever and might tempt you to dance and sing along, is allowed. Don’t think about whether the music is “in” or not. You should be more considerate of the neighbors below you. After all, there can't be enough happy people in this world.
6. Don't give idleness a chance
It is well known to be the beginning of all vices, but misfortune also feeds on it. If you let yourself down, don't keep up with your daily tasks, and eventually get overwhelmed by stress, even the greatest happiness has no chance of landing on you. Like everything in our lives, happiness needs space to unfold. If you tend to chaos, try to get it under control with to-do lists and set priorities.
If you are constantly behind in your thoughts and feel bad and disorganized, it will be difficult or impossible to be happy. Create the conditions for your own personal high. Start by tidying up your apartment, for clutter stresses us on a subconscious level and blocks positive vibrations before they arise.
Today’s Conclusion
Get a jump on happiness. "Happiness is not a gift from the gods, but the fruit of Inner Attitude." This quote by Erich Fromm is true, all well and good, but unfortunately not so easy to integrate into our everyday lives.
Unfortunately, we humans have a strong tendency to always orient ourselves to those things and circumstances that we don't have at the moment, instead of recognizing the abundance from which we are already allowed to draw on a daily basis. If you can't manage to indulge in a feeling of happiness once in a while around the castle, you can take a step back and start with the basics.
Happiness is not a singular feeling, but the sum of many small factors. It is preceded by contentment, which alone is a state worth striving for, as it is the basis of all happiness in our human existence. If you are at least a contented person full of fervor and conviction, then happiness is not far behind. That's it for today.