On Being Happy

This week's blog post is something different than I typically do.  I wanted to write about inner beauty - specifically happiness and ways to improve your happiness.  I believe that a truly beautiful person is someone who is confident and genuinely happy.

2013 and part of 2014 were very difficult for me.  I was suffering from severe anxiety and depression.  I hated feeling the way I did so I decided to take steps to improve my situation.  I can honestly say that I am the happiest right now than I have been in quite some time.  Obviously I didn't get to where I am now overnight, it took time and effort.  Most of the positions I put myself in (listed below) were uncomfortable for me at the time, but I'm so much better for it.  If you're looking for ways to improve your situation then I hope my list of steps is useful to you.

 Here are ways that I found to be helpful:

• Talk to someone - in the beginning, the only person who any idea about my trouble with anxiety/depression was my husband.  It took me almost a year to tell my best friend.  It took me over a year to talk to my doctor about it.  Talking with each person was uncomfortable and awkward for me, but it made it easier to talk to the next person about it.  Each person was incredibly supportive and offered to me any help that I wanted.  Honestly, I wish I had talked about it much sooner than I did.

• Go outside - there's just something so refreshing about being outdoors and taking a few minutes to focus on your well being.  You can use this as your "me time" and think about all of the things you want to change and accomplish.  While you're outside you might as well take a little walk.  Exercise is another great way to improve your happiness.  This is also a good way to get your daily intake of vitamin D (which is also really good for improving your mood and your happiness!)  If you live in a place similar to where I live (cold, wet, and cloudy for most of the year) you can also take vitamin D supplements to help you get your daily requirement.  If supplements aren't your thing you can pick up a natural light lamp to aid you with your vitamin D intake.

•  De-clutter - this time last year, my husband and I went through everything (yes, literally everything!) in our home and donated, sold, or threw away anything we didn't want or need (clothes, appliances, keepsakes, etc.).  You don't need to go to that extreme, but just start somewhere.  If there's an item that doesn't bring you joy or use, get rid of it!  When my husband and I went through our things I noticed that I carried around many possessions that I didn't really need or even want.  Some items I kept because I felt like I had an obligation to keep it around (it was given to me or I had paid quite a bit of money for it) or because I thought they might be useful someday.  All of those items that I thought might be useful someday, I realized that they wouldn't be.  (How many years had I been carrying them around and I still couldn't find use for them?!)  It was such a relief to be rid of all of the junk that was cluttering up our home.  I haven't once missed any of those items since we got rid of them or found use for any of them.

• Manage your social media - this is something else I did last year.  If seeing posts on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, etc. make you feel uncomfortable or put you in a bad mood, remove the culprit from your feed.  I don't follow all of my friends on all of my social media.  That doesn't mean that I don't like them as a person, it's just that I don't agree with/like the things they post.  And that's okay.  If you have a friend on Facebook that is constantly posting updates or pictures that you don't like but you still talk to them and want to keep them in your friends list, you can manage your settings so that you no longer see their posts in your feed, but you'll still friends with them.  If there's someone on your friends list that you don't personally know then there's no reason for them to be on your friends list (unless you're networking).  Sometimes, you realize that someone you used to be friends with isn't your friend anymore.  I had people on my friends list that I didn't even like or talk to anymore for years because I felt obligated to keep them around because I had known them for a long time.  Life is short, there's absolutely no reason to keep people in your life that bring you down.

I really hope this was helpful in some way, and if you have anything to add to this please leave your suggestions in the comments below!

Thank you for taking the time to stop by!