READ ALL ABOUT IT - The news is out, the top ten happiest places on earth are listed in order, and the USA is still not on the list.
On National Happiness Day, let's celebrate the little moments that make life worth living! Take a deep breath, smile, and appreciate the world's beauty. Spread kindness and positivity, and remember that happiness is a choice we can make daily.
Studies have found that individuals who engage in regular exercise and physical activity report higher happiness and life satisfaction.
Social connections and relationships are also significant predictors of happiness. People with close relationships and social support networks are happier than those who are more isolated.
Research suggests that individuals who engage in acts of kindness and altruism tend to experience greater levels of happiness and well-being.
Rule number one, if you’re married - A happy wife Is a happy life. However, that does not impede any of us from feeling happy inside. Some habits move us forward in life, and patterns hold us back.
In this post, I will review eight everyday habits that sabotage our progress and how to fix them. But, please, don't hate, but stay far away from these dreaded eight.
Procrastination How many times have you put off for tomorrow what you should have done today?
I should have written this article yesterday, so let's start there!
Procrastination is such a bad habit. It becomes addictive and sneaks up on you, making everything so much more stressful than it should be.
How to fix this:
The next time you find yourself making an excuse, get up and do it anyway.
If you don't, hold yourself accountable or find somebody else who will. For real.
Overthinking is dangerous for your health.
There needs to be a balance.
When you don't think enough or are reckless and impulsive, you put yourself at risk and do stupid things.
But when you overthink, you get paralyzed in inaction and stuck in your head.
Depression, frustration, and confusion are generally the result.
Stop overthinking! It isn't enjoyable.
How to fix this:
Think over decisions carefully, then act.
If you find yourself rethinking, act anyway. Unless you have new information to consider, there is no need to rehash decisions or past regrets over and over.
If you are overthinking matters out of your control, take a cold shower and do 50 pushups.
Victimology is the next of the bad habits to break for a more fulfilling life.
This is the habit of seeing yourself as a victim and even intentionally playing the victim to manipulate others or get your way.
Being a victim can become a nasty habit because even though we all get treated unfairly and unjustly in life when you embrace the role of a victim, you can become addicted.
You will often start to subconsciously pursue and even seek out being a victim, believing it gives you power or moral sway.
Instead, emphasizing victimhood often increases or leads to uncomfortable and toxic situations.
How to fix this:
Volunteer to help people less fortunate than yourself in some way. Spend time among those suffering and find a way to focus on the hardships of others instead of only your own.
You will see that as awful as your struggle is, it is not as unique or solitary as you might think.
The next habit to break for a more fulfilling life is overindulgence.
This can be in almost any area where you treat yourself too luxuriously for your good:
- Overeating
- Over-relaxing
- Sex addiction
- Pornography addiction
- Gambling
- Alcoholism
- Drug addiction
The list goes on and on, but you get the point.
If you find that you're engaging in a behavior to escape from facing yourself or doing what you must do, you must take a long, hard look at it.
How to fix this:
Grant yourself one overindulgence a week. If you eat a lot of ice cream on Tuesday night? That's it for the week!
Any other overindulgence and you're looking at an accountability partner or a consequence of some kind. Most logically, for every additional excess, you get zero the following week.
Respect-seeking is the next of the very nasty habits to break for a more fulfilling life.
Many of us learn at a young age that we should seek approval and respect from those around us.
This is reinforced in many educational systems and by many cultures.
The problem is that it can create people-pleasers with no sense of security and decisiveness inside themselves.
You know what I mean:
You want to do something, dress a certain way, or date someone, but you want to check what everyone else thinks first…
Big mistake!
Respect-seeking behavior always results in losing your self-respect.
How to fix this:
Be true to yourself and frame your reality around you and what you want, not whether or not other people approve of what you're doing or whether it's popular.
Telling lies can become a terrible habit because it's effortless to do.
The fact is that lies are like anything else: practice makes perfect.
You start with a few little white lies here and there, and in a few years, you find yourself lying about an affair…
You tell a lie to yourself about being happy in your job, and a few years later, you're in a psychologist's office suffering from severe depression.
Even lies that don't get exposed often take a considerable toll.
That's why the vast majority of lies are something you should avoid.
Unless you're telling a necessary lie to avoid a worse disaster, like trying not to freak your kid out about a disease they have that might be very serious but keep the serious part under wraps for now…
Avoid lying!
How to fix this bad habit: Every time you lie to yourself or somebody else for anything other than an entirely moral reason that even a saint would agree with, donate $5 to a charity of your choice. It will be a good cause; maybe you'll start to watch your lies more carefully and avoid them.
Impulsiveness, The next of the awful habits to break for a more fulfilling life is impulsiveness.
When you go on a spontaneous road trip or kiss somebody you've always had a crush on, that's one thing!
Some spontaneity is a great thing…
But too much impulsiveness will land you in a world of trouble:
What's that one extra donut going to hurt? Or even maybe one or two more after that?
Why not sleep with someone you don't like, even if you know they are emotionally needy and will hassle you for months afterward?
Watch out for being impulsive! It'll derail your life!
How to fix this bad habit: Begin writing out a daily schedule and follow it. Stop doing impulsive things that could be risky unless you have a compelling reason to do so and you've thought it through beforehand.
Yessing The last of the bad habits to break for a more fulfilling life is yessing.
This is the instinct of saying yes to people and offers for fear of offending or disappointing others.
It relates to respect-seeking, but it's more specific:
When you say yes and are afraid to say no, you put yourself last and embark on a disempowering quest to ruin your life.
Stop saying yes to everything:
The power of no is genuinely magnificent in some situations.
How to fix this:
The next time somebody offers you a job, a relationship, an opportunity, or an item you don't want, respectfully decline. Practice just saying - NO, Thank YOU.
World Happiness Report: The world's happiest countries for 2023
https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/world-happiest-countries-2023-wellne…
The Top 10 Happiest Countries in the World https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/life-style/health-fitness/web-stori…