1 Be strong and optimistic. Dont let negative circumstances and sadness creep into or ruin your life. Whenever you are sad, try to keep your head high. You should tell yourself that life is full of hopes, challenges and unexpected twists and turns of surprises. Look for the silver linings in life. Often something in life will happen which we interpret as being bad. When we look at it, however, it turns out to have some good aspects to it. Those are called silver linings. For example: Your partner dumped you. The silver lining? There are so many different people out there that you can meet. Having the opportunity to get to know someone, to be let into their heart and soul, is a powerful thing. You lost your job. Maybe you didnt like your job all too much. The silver lining? You now have a chance to find a better, more meaningful, higher-paying position. You failed at something when you thought youd succeed. Life is funny that way, isnt it? The silver lining? You learn just as much, if not more, from failing at something than you do from getting it right the first time. 2 Keep yourself busy. You know what they say about idle hands, right? Research has consistently found that people who stay busy are happier than people who stand idle.[1][2] Not only is too much free time a little depressing, it can also be unproductive. Think of all the things you could be doing, like joining clubs, visiting places, hearing lectures, and then think of how little time you are given in life to do just that. 3 Give yourself reasons to smile. Scientists have found that the act of smiling may actually made you happier.[3] Thats right: just smiling. Give it a try. Find any one of the following reasons to smile and give it a go: A stranger passed you and smiled. Someone else did a nice thing for a random stranger. Something unexpected happened that caused you to think about how vast and strange the world is. You saw something beautiful in the world. 4 Follow your instincts. People who stick with their gut instincts can be happier than people who labor over their decisions. This is why: if you stick with your gut, youre less likely to question what the other options might have been like, tasted like, etc; if you labor over the decision, youre more likely to wonder if you made a mistake in picking one thing over the other. 5 Be generous and compassionate. You might feel smart for thinking that winning a lottery ticket could make you happy, but youd be wrong. Money increases happiness only up to a certain level, where your basic needs are met.[4] After that, money makes you no happier than other people. What does make you happy, however, is compassion. One study has found that people who look at others giving money to charity makes us just as happy as receiving money ourselves![5] That means you should find ways to be compassionate if you can. Give back to charity, volunteer at your local food bank, help a team of second-graders with their homework, etc.
Posted on: Thu, 22 Jan 2015 12:42:49 +0000
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