Happiness blooms from gratitude: “Sometimes I’m tired, but my body still works well. I often can’t sleep well, but I wake up in the morning to experience a new day. My wallet isn’t full, but my stomach is. I don’t have the things I’ve always wanted, but I have the ones I need. I am grateful even though my life hasn’t been perfect, but it’s mine, and I choose to be grateful for it because I try to be the best I can.”
This is a diary entry from an elderly lady. How many of us are actually in the same situation every day but forget the most important part – to be grateful? Because actually, we can all do our best at the given moment, the best we can, if we just try. Here’s how.
Embrace your humanity
– it’s nice to be humane, moral, and pure. However, first and foremost, we are all humans and we shouldn’t be ashamed of that – we should give and take, get lost and find the way, feel, love… all of it.
Practice inner strength
– this life is yours and yours alone, so take the power to do what you want and to do it well. Take the power to be happy.
Choose differently
– our life now is the result of decisions we’ve made in the past. If we’re dissatisfied with some part of our lives, we probably made the wrong decisions in the past, no matter how small they were. So, start with a different choice of small decisions.
Embrace happiness through self-acceptance.
– everyone has their good and bad sides, weaknesses and strengths. Only when we accept everything about ourselves, we will be able to be happy.
Find happiness within instead of seeking external approval.
– you have no control over what others think of you, but you have control over how you respond to their opinions. Don’t fear them and don’t try to fit in just to please others. Let others love you for what you are, not for what they want you to be.
Find happiness embracing your ‘flaws’
– you don’t have to be normal, there’s no such thing as ‘normal’, everyone has those little ‘flaws’ i.e., things that are strange to someone else. Accept them and proudly move forward with them. Whoever tells you you’re wrong – is wrong themselves.
Mind your own business
– it doesn’t matter what others are doing and getting into their business or comparing yourself to them. Confidence doesn’t mean entering a room full of people with your nose in the air thinking you’re better than others but entering a room full of people without the need to compare yourself to anyone.
Choose your thoughts
– the greatest power against stress is choosing one thought over another. Often this means choosing your attitude over others.
Express the truth to cultivate happiness.
– there’s no greater sadness than to think thoughts you never have the courage to say.
Don’t fight reality
– it’s better to accept it than to fight against it or beautify it. Many things don’t need fixing, they just need to be accepted and that’s all.
Don’t force anything
– do your best, then let go. What must be, will be, we don’t need to run or force anything that is destined for us and worth our time. Also, there are some things we won’t understand and that’s okay.
With all this, we will find happiness with people who care about us and by spending as much time with them as possible, instead of chasing after those who don’t want us. Also, happiness is in being present. Presence is the most valuable gift we can offer both to ourselves and to those around us!
