4 ways to make yourself happy
Something I really pride myself in is being super happy- I attribute a lot of that to my faith, my personality, my occupation, my amazing friends, bae, I could go on and on..
But you know what? Being happy takes work sometimes. Sometimes it takes some effort, a little bit of elbow grease. Sometimes you don't even realize you're just going through the motions, that things are like fine, but not like WOAH- and that you have a choice to wake up every day and be happy. Happiness is not just the absence of sadness, or anger, or boredom. Happiness is a little extra, it's looking forward to something, it's checking in with yourself & being proud of what you discover, it's designing your life just how you like it.
Being happy on purpose isn't effortless (I would dare say that those are contradictory terms), but it also isn't, like, hard.
I'm a big fan of checking in with myself, like hey you doing alright? You like what we're wearing today? Did you like waking up early this morning? How could today be better for you? What didn't feel good for you? And then listening to myself. But you have to ask yourself the questions. Because sometimes the answers are sooo simpleeee.
The 4 Happy Lists:
1. What makes you happy in general
2. What makes you happy that you don't do often enough
3. What makes you happy now, but not later
4. What makes you happy later, but not now
My Simple Answers:
1. Happy In General (I really wish this acronym spelled H.U.G., alas, it spells HIG.)
-wearing necklaces
-coffee
-Skyping my nephew
-hanging out with bae
-seeing lighthearted movies
-having my nails done
-fun photoshoots
-listening to audiobooks
-planning my next trip
-just living in SLO
Those are simple things aren't they? But all added up, they make a huge difference in my life. If I removed all those tiny things in my life, I.would.be.mucho.not.happy.
2. Happy + Need To Do More
-yoga
-playing Settlers of Catan
-baking
-going out dancing
-reading my devotional
-doing my hair
-catching up with my long distance friends
-planning my outfits for the week
And when you write these things down, you realize how easy it is to start doing them more often.
3. Happy Now, Not Later
-eating a ton of Oreos
-sleeping in
-wearing uncomfortable but adorable shoes
-not getting up to plug in my phone before I fall asleep because I'm too comfy (and then having my phone die in the middle of the night this is the worsttt)
These are also called bad decisions.
4. Happy Later, Not Now
-cleaning my room
-getting myself to the yoga studio
-taking off my make up
-putting money in my savings account
Paige calls this "Taking care of my future self." These things could also be called adulting.
See what I mean by simple answers?
When you ask yourself what makes you happy, you realize it just takes the tiniest efforts, like putting a necklace on & grabbing an espresso. (Talk about what doesn't make me happy? The NOT word expresso.) And when you think about it, it's the little things like that give you a little oomph, a little something extra, a little pep in your step. That's what I live for.
What do you live for?