Are you struggling to find the things that make you happy? Do you feel like you are trying to make everyone else happy, that you don’t even know if you’re making yourself happy? Todays blog post is How to find out what makes you happy.
Look at your everyday life
Make a conscious effort to look at the things you are doing in your free time everyday.
You may feel like you are wasting time by going on social media. Or you may be trying to do things that you see make other people on social media happy, and are questioning why they don’t make you happy.
A few things to note down:
- When you get time to yourself, what do you do? Make a note of all of these things / activities and how many times you do them.
- When you don’t get time to yourself, what are you wishing you could do?
- Is what you do to make yourself ‘happy’ actually making you happy, or do you do it because you want it to make you happy?
- Do you ever try anything new during the week?
Once you have a better understanding of what your week looks like, and what free time you have, you can start to change and question things.
Limit social media
Are you constantly scrolling on social media looking at peoples lives thinking, why doesn’t mine look like that? How come she is so happy? If only I had what they had then I’d be happy?
Well let me just tell you, social media is not a true representation of someone’s whole life.
Anyone can put a smile on for a 30 second clip, and make everyone believe that you are living an amazing happy life.
That’s why it’s important to cut back on social media.
The time that you’ve cut back on social media can be used to really benefit you, and find out what makes YOU truly happy.
What if I don’t want to cut out social media completely?
Don’t worry, you don’t have to!
The best tip is to allocate time in your day to go on social media. Whether it’s 15 minutes to an hour, give yourself a time slot and allow yourself to scroll.
I don’t know about you, but do you ever feel so unproductive and guilty, when you spend so much time scrolling, and you don’t realise HOURS have passed.
Well allocating time in your day to go on social media will stop this.
You don’t have to be strict with it, because that’s when you will probably want to do it more!
By doing this, you will probably look forward to going on social media less and less, because you will find so much more fulfilling things to do!
Keep a journal
This can be a paper journal, or it can be on the notes app on your phone, but keeping a journal of how you’re feeling everyday is important.
We have been so influenced by social media, that we don’t even know what truly makes US happy anymore.
Learning about yourself by keeping a journal, will allow you to truly understand what makes you happy, sad, joyful, overwhelmed, etc.
What to journal about?
- Everything that made you happy today, and why it made you happy.
- Everything that made you sad today, and why it made you sad.
- Do you feel like something is holding you back? If so what?
- What did you wish you could have done today?
- Anything that’s on your mind that you want to get out.
Try new things
This one seems obvious, but if you are struggling to find something that truly makes YOU happy, then you have to try different things until you get there.
Watching TikTok’s of what makes other people happy, you may think to yourself, I’ll just do those things and surely they’ll make me happy too, right?
That might not be the case. You may be trying all of those things, and thinking there is something missing, it doesn’t light me up, and I don’t look forward to it.
So, this is why we limit the social media, and why we journal, because we need to figure ourselves out, by learning about ourselves with no distractions.
What to do when you try the new things:
- Write down how it makes you feel
- Would you be excited to do this more than once in the week?
- We’re you burnt out after it?
- What would you rate it out of 10? And then you can compare all of the things you have been trying.
What can I try?
- Art – drawing, painting, sculpture, etc
- Pottery
- Sports – tennis, swimming, badminton, yoga, weight lifting
- Writing – journaling, creative, poems
- Organising
- Cooking / baking
- Volunteering
- Photography
- Meditation
- Learn an instrument
- Learn different things everyday with online classes
- Hiking
- Nail art
- Spa days
Forget what everyone else thinks
There will be people in your life who like to judge and give you their opinions, that sometimes aren’t helpful or encouraging.
That’s why you need to forget what everyone else thinks.
As soon as you start putting yourself and your happiness first, there may be people who make it difficult for you. The majority of the time, that is because they are jealous of what you are doing.
Not everyone has your best interests at heart. So forgetting what they think, and making yourself happy, is the best way to go.
You are alive for such a short amount of time, spending it making other people happy, rather than yourself is a waste.
As sad as it is, we don’t get a trial run of life, we are living it right now. All of the things you think are so important now, like making your boss happy, spending more time working rather than living, etc, you will wish you didn’t spend as much time worrying about those things when you are older.
Take care of yourself
Self care can mean different things to everyone, the main goal is to take care of yourself in all aspects of your life.
How do I take care of myself mentally?
- Journal – this is one of the best ways to find out what’s actually going on in your life, and figure out how you’re actually feeling. Write everything down. It lowers stress and anxiety, and you will thank yourself for it, and will learn how to become more happy.
- Gratitude – making sure you are practicing gratitude is one of the best ways to remain happy. A lot of the time we overlook the things we should be grateful for and focus on the negative things in life. You can change your life around by putting things into perspective through gratitude.
- Deep breathing – whenever you are feeling anxious or nervous, deep breathing is such a good way to get your heart rate down. It gets rid of those nervous butterflies in your stomach. Breathe in for 4 and out for 4 whenever you are feeling nervous and it will help massively in taking care of yourself.
- Take breaks – oftentimes, we work work work, and never give ourselves enough time to fully rest. When we do rest, we feel guilty for not working, which means we don’t get to fully rest or work properly. Taking a break to reset your mind will make you come back stronger and more prepared to work. It will also make you happy, as you are taking time to care for yourself.
- Find a hobby – finding something that makes you happy (which you are hopefully closer to doing after reading this post), will make you feel more fulfilled in life. Make the time, and you won’t regret it I promise.
How do I take care of myself physically?
- Exercise – exercise boosts your endorphins, which make you happy. As well as positively impacting your body (when done correctly). Not only will you feel happier, you will have more energy and a healthier body to complete everyday tasks better.
- Food – food is fuel. Balanced meals that contain protein, carbs, and fats will keep you full and satisfied, as well as give you energ. Diets work for some people, and not others, do what works for you.
- Rest – it does your body good to rest when you need it. Especially as women, there are times in the month where working out does more harm than good. Sometimes resting can be the best thing for your body and can benefit you physically.
Thank you for reading <3
I hope this post helped you in finding out what makes you happy. It seems simple, but it can be very hard finding something that actually makes you genuinely happy.
If this post helped please let me know in the comments. I am so proud of you!
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