Hey everyone, and welcome to TopThink. Today, we are going to learn about how to be happy:
4 little habits for happiness. Now, let’s begin.
1. Acknowledge Unhappiness Before you can experience happiness,
you need to experience unhappiness. Positivity can’t exist without negativity.
Dreams can’t exist without nightmares. In other words, if you want to be happy, you
need to acknowledge those moments when you’re not Happiness is a complicated emotion; it’s much more
than simple joy or euphoria. When you feel happy, you can experience a wide variety of feelings,
ranging from gratitude and pride to love and nostalgia. Together, these “happy” feelings
create deeply personal emotions, like satisfaction and fulfillment, which cultivate a happy life.
Because happiness is so complicated and diverse, it’s important to acknowledge
not only your happiest moments but also your saddest, angriest, and most frustrating moments.
Because those moments help you understand what real happiness looks and feels like.
So, allow yourself to experience a wide spectrum of positive and negative emotions. Be angry. Be
confused. Be envious. Because each emotion clarifies your definition of real happiness.
If you don’t allow yourself to experience diverse emotions, you may make the same mistake millions
of people make every day. You may suppress your negativity, fabricating your happiness,
forcing yourself to smile and laugh, even when you’re crying on the inside. But here’s the truth:
you can’t trick yourself into feeling genuine happiness. You can’t pretend negative emotions,
bad experiences, and uncomfortable situations don’t exist. Avoidance only deepens your emotional
conflicts, creating invisible obstacles that can and will impede your happiness for years to come.
Here’s what’s going to happen. Instead of finding real happiness,
you’ll feel empty and numb. You’ll become overwhelmed by emotional conflicts lingering
in the back of your mind. Like many people, you may go to great lengths to avoid those stressors.
You may try to erase your worst experiences from your mind, but they’ll never disappear unless
you’re willing to experience and understand them. So, stop ignoring your unhappiness and negativity.
You need to work through your emotional conflicts before you can move past them.
Once you resolve those problems, you’ll find yourself one step closer to a happy life.
It can be challenging and frightening to acknowledge your unhappiness. No one wants
to feel sad, angry, or envious, but those emotions are a part of who you are. If you can face those
conflicts and overcome those obstacles, you may discover real happiness waiting on the other side.
2. Giving Compliments What happens when you give someone else
a compliment? What does it feel like to brighten someone else’s day? Giving compliments can be a
wonderful, uplifting experience. Making someone smile or laugh provides a unique satisfaction,
improving your mood and strengthening your friendships, but it also stimulates
a powerful psychological transformation, which increases your confidence and general happiness.
Think about this. How do you feel when your friend or partner achieves a significant goal?
Very few people know how to appreciate other peoples’ successes.
Their accomplishments may feel threatening to your lifestyle. You may compare your life to theirs and
feel ashamed of the choices you’ve made. You may feel intimidated, defensive, or insulted,
but the problem isn’t your ego or your pride. You don’t know how to appreciate others because
you don’t know how to appreciate yourself. As strange as it sounds, giving compliments
teaches you to recognize your strengths and value your idiosyncrasies. How? By distinguishing your
success from the successes of others. Making comparisons, whether personal or professional,
will always be a waste of time, but more importantly it’s an irrational burden you
shouldn’t spend your life carrying. Because your successes have nothing to do with someone else’s.
It’s like comparing apples and oranges. Both are fruit, but apples and oranges taste, smell,
and feel completely different. In the same way, your definitions of happiness and success
are entirely different from someone else’s. You’re living different lives filled with
different people and different opportunities. No matter how similar you two seem on paper,
your lives are bound to move at different paces. So, instead of envying their success,
learn to appreciate it. Celebrate the achievements of the people around you. Acknowledge other
people’s hard work, and let their achievements inspire you to chase your definition of happiness.
3. Unplugging How many hours do you spend
staring at screens? Using technology doesn’t hurt your chances of finding happiness but over-using
technology can damage your self-esteem. For example, social media encourages
self-deprecating, social comparisons, contrasting your life with the lives of celebrities and media
icons. You may envy another person’s success, freedom, or authority. You may daydream about
living a different life. You may fantasize about switching places with someone on the Internet.
These fantastical thoughts seem harmless in the moment, but down the road, they can impact
your confidence and diminish your self-worth. Luckily, there’s an easy way to improve your
relationship with technology. Once a week, purge your life of all devices. Put away your phones and
tablets. Close your laptop and turn off the TV for 60 continuous minutes. For one hour, you’re going
to live your life without technology of any kind. During that time, enjoy a good conversation with
a friend. Walk around your neighborhood, or sit on the floor, relishing in the peace and quiet.
As long as you remain technology-free, you can spend those 60 minutes any way you like.
It may be uncomfortable at first. You might feel bored, lost, or uncomfortable,
but unplugging from your devices helps you create a happier, healthier life.
Once you step away from your devices, you may realize something you never noticed before:
technology plays a huge, overbearing role in your life. We’re so accustomed to our devices,
we rarely think twice about browsing, surfing, and gaming for hours on end. To put it simply, you may
not realize how much time you’re losing every day. For some people, that realization is a wake-up
call. For others, it’s a necessary reminder to appreciate and respect
the technology we take for granted. There’s one more advantage of unplugging
we haven’t discussed yet. Unplugging affects more than your relationship with technology. It forces
you to rediscover old hobbies and explore points of curiosity without technological assistance.
For example, phones and computers can do many things, but there are few things as rewarding as
performing a physical task, like writing on paper or building an object with your own two hands.
Yes, these activities are lengthy and laborious. You may have 20 applications
on your phone that can speed up the process. But slow, handmade projects are often more memorable
and meaningful experiences, yielding creations you may treasure for the rest of your life.
To understand the many benefits of tech-free living, step away from your devices for at least
60 minutes each week. Even though technology doesn’t stop you from living a happy life,
it can hurt your self-esteem and distract from life’s most meaningful experience.
So, as often as you can, turn off your devices and give yourself a chance to grow.
4. Initiate Discomfort
What does happiness mean to you? For many people, happiness means safety, security, and comfort.
It’s finding a special person, career or community that makes you feel comfortable and fulfilled.
You’ve found what you’ve been looking for, so you stop pushing. You stop challenging yourself. After
all, you’re happy, so what more is there to do? Too many people fall into this trap. You never
find lasting happiness, because, at some point, you stop searching for it.
You find a safe and comfortable situation, somewhere that’s good enough to get by,
so you take their foot off the gas pedal. You stop taking risks, chasing opportunities, and putting
yourself out there. You give up on your dreams and ambitions to hide within your comfort zones.
Sure, you may feel happy at first, but soon that comfortable life loses its luster. Deep
down inside, you start wishing for more. You crave excitement, discovery, and stimulation.
Why? Because happiness isn’t a race you can finish. It’s not a treasure you can
find. Happiness is a lifelong journey that continuously evolves and changes. It’s unstable,
unpredictable, and often irrational, but that’s what makes happiness worth chasing.
Look at the lifestyles of the happiest people. They aren’t searching for a
safe and comfortable life. Instead, they spend their lives seeking new challenges.
They throw themselves into unfamiliar situations and push the boundaries of their comfort zones.
Here’s the problem. Living a happy life requires incredible courage, which most people
don’t have. Most of the world hides inside their personal bubbles, avoiding risks and discomfort.
But there’s a reason why the happiest people are so passionate and free-spirited.
They aren’t interested in winning the race or finding the treasure.
They’re only interested in the journey and having as much fun as they can
along the way. And that mindset gives them the courage to face obstacles others cannot.
So, what does this mean for you? How can you incorporate this happy and courageous mindset
into your life? It’s easier than it sounds. To put it simply, don’t run away from new
or uncomfortable situations. Force yourself into new environments as often as you can.
Because trying new things, personally and professionally, teaches you to be brave.
This life is full of incredible opportunities, brimming with passion, adventure, and excitement.
But, if you don’t have the courage to take those chances, you’ll spend the rest of your
day trapped within your comfort zone. So, face the unknown with confidence and a positive attitude.
Because change is the key to a happier life. Thank you for watching TopThink,
and be sure to subscribe, because more incredible content is on the way.