Over the last few months, I have been actively trying to be a happier person. I have been trying to see the positive sides of things, and to not let little things or other people bother me, and I can say that I certainly feel a lot better ever since I decided to make this change. In this article I will tell you the things I have personally done in order to improve my own happiness, I hope these things also work for you!
I have let people go.
I’m not going to lie, this one was hard. However it was also one that significantly helped me. I examined all my relationships from family members to friends, and I got rid of the ones that caused me more stress or sadness than they did happiness. All those people that I was always there for, but they were never there for me? Gone. Those friends that always cancelled plans? Gone. My mentality while doing this was simply this: why keep people in life who don’t make an effort to actually be in it? Yes it was difficult to remove some of them from my life, but in the end I now know who I can count on and who is a true friend.
I started looking at the positives in situations, instead of the negatives.
Before, whenever things weren’t going as I had planned, I would get frustrated and look at all the things that had not gone my way. Now instead of looking at all the bad things, I try to look at all the good things. For example, earlier in the semester I got locked out of my dorm room right before I had to leave for an exam in one of my classes. Instead of getting upset about wearing my slippers to class and not having a jacket in the freezing temperature, I thought to myself “Hey, at least I’m not still in my pajamas!” and “At least I’m still going to be on time for the exam” and then I went to class, took the exam, and then found my roommate to let me back into our room. By examining little things like that you realize that your situation could always be worse. Once you think about all the other things that could make the situation worse, you feel better about the small inconvience that happened to you, and it won’t ruin your day.
I stopped caring about social media.
Did so-and-so like my Instagram post? Did whats-their-name see my snapchat story? How is this person always doing such exciting things? These are all questions I stopped asking myself. I’m not saying I stopped using social media, because I didn’t. I simply stopped comparing myself to other people, and I stopped worrying about how others interacted with my social media accounts. I started posting pictures that I liked, I didn’t think about if other people would like them, or if they would get a lot of likes. I put things that were important to me, other people may not see them as important, but so what? It’s my account, not theirs.
I stopped complaining.
Normally, if someone did something to me or something inconvient happened I would text my mom or my best friend to tell them how annoying the situation was. Looking back, I realized not only how much I complained, but how much everyone complains. So I decided to stop. Now, I text my mom or friend when something funny happens, and I’ve even noticed that since I changed my attitude, my mom and friend have texted me more positive stories than negative ones. I also realized how silly the things I used to complain about were. Such little, meaningless things. I feel so much better not dwelling on the negative moments, and not letting them ruin my day.
I started being kind to others.
Now don’t get me wrong with this one, I wasn’t rude before, but now I make a bit more of an effort to treat people kindly. For example, walking down the street. Before, I would probably look down at my feet or at my phone when walking by someone, but now I smile at them. I do little things like that, but these small acts make me feel better, and I like to think that it always makes other people more happy as well, even if only for a second.
Overall, I think my new positive outlook on things has really helped my happiness, and I feel so much more light and refreshed than I did before. It’s hard to change, and some days I still struggle to stay positive, but then I remind myself that there is simply no point in being miserable when there is always the option to be happy and kind.