This article was last updated on January 26, 2022
If you have ever found yourself in a dark place in your life (and the chances are you have), you know how difficult it is to see the light. In situations such as this one, things often seem impossible to repair, but you need to know that there is always a way out.
There are changes you can make in order change your perspective on life. You must have heard the saying that life gives you only what you can handle, and it’s the darkest of times when you need to stay strong and show yourself that you are worthy of better things. My advice is to start with a few simple positive changes, which you can later turn into your own life philosophy.
10 Life Changes That Will Make You Happy
Learn to Prioritize
People often mistake what they want for what they need. Life can be really simple if you allow it, and all human beings really need is good health, someone to love us back, respect from our peers, enough money to live comfortably, a sense of purpose and aspirations that push us forward – everything else is a pure bonus.
Only once you have these basic needs covered, and you feel generally happy, can you focus on other things that need to fall into place to further improve your life.
Accept Your Flaws
People are imperfect, period. Curiosity and creativity can often lead to mistakes, which we can learn from, and being different means you will have some flaws – next to our virtues, they are what makes us unique. Whether you have issues with your appearance or your character traits, you should know that embracing your flaws is a good thing.
Everyone around you is dealing with this problem, and being happy or unhappy in life depends on whether you’ll accept your true nature or fight it.
Seek Guidance
If you have trouble making a lifestyle or career decision, you should ask for help. My suggestion is to contact a capable professional with plenty of experience dealing with similar problems, and pour your soul out. A bit of counsel from an objective third party may be exactly what you need in order to figure some things out and find your true path in life.
Get to Know Yourself
In order to accomplish the abovementioned goals, you need to get to know your true self first. Most people sink into everyday monotony, which doesn’t allow them to have some quality alone time, when they could reflect on different aspects of their life and identify what it is that makes them happy.
Even if you do find an hour or two of free time during the day, most people would rather call a friend and have a cup of coffee with them than take a nice long walk and be alone with your thoughts. However, it’s necessary to take an hour or two to just sit alone with your thoughts, with some music playing in the background, and really focus on finding ways to improve your life and, by extension, your mental health.
Spend Quality Time with Friends
I’d like to emphasize the word quality here. Social activities are necessary to (most) human beings – they make us feel like we belong, but that doesn’t mean you should join any of them. When you have been friends with someone for a long time, it’s easy to fall into a routine, and the same goes for relationships. When you stop enjoying doing the same old things, you should simply change your routine.
Of course – there’s a right and a wrong way to do this. Remember, having great friends is a privilege and if you’d like to see some changes in your relationship, you need to approach the issue with nothing but positivity. For example, if you’re tired of playing charades, with other couples each friday, you should come up with a list of new activities instead of pointing out everything that bores you about this game.
Work on Your Confidence
The way you perceive the world depends on your attitude. When you restore your faith in yourself, you need then start working on your confidence – it needs to derive from a strong place in your mind and it needs to be based on firm facts you know about yourself.
Once you establish things you love about yourself, you mustn’t allow yourself to forget them ever again, no matter what others may tell you.
Adopt Sleeping Habits
Not nearly enough attention is paid to the quality of our sleep, especially in adulthood. Somehow people came to realize they can simply go without it. The fact is that we spend a third of our lives sleeping, and dealing with an uncomfortable problem like snoring or sleeping on a bad mattress can be very harmful to your overall health and happiness if you don’t do something about it right away.
You should face the fact that your whole day depends on whether you had a good night’s sleep – energy levels, mood swings and your overall performance are all affected by lack of sleep. I sincerely believe this is a problem that requires our undivided attention.
Eat Great Food
Life is full of small pleasures and you should enjoy them. One of the greatest pleasures is, in my opinion, food, and for two different reasons: it’s essential for maintaining good health and it’s absolutely delicious. Many people neglect their meals and eat just because they need the energy, but if you start treating food like if it were a treat, and not mere fuel, your whole life will change.
Work on Your Image
Your confidence comes from a positive self image. This image is often unrealistic, because we allow others to affect it with their judgmental remarks that have a way of engraving themselves into our subconscious.
If you want to make a better impression and change the way others perceive you, you need to make the first move – if you want others to respect you, you need to respect yourself first.
Do What Makes You Happy
It all comes down to this last one – in order to be happy, you need to do things that make you feel that way. If you decide to go through this transitional process, you’ll be able to discover small and big, new and old things you enjoy doing. So do them – it should be that simple.
This journey will require strength and courage. It’s a misbelief that some of us possess these characteristics while others don’t – if you haven’t managed to manifest them so far, all you need to do is dig deeper and I’m sure you’ll find exactly what you’re looking for.
Photo source: Greg westfall
