Maintaining happiness when you’re out of routine

Maintaining happiness when you’re out of routine

I'm super busy at the moment and my work, currently, involves quite a bit of travel. This is not a bad thing, because I'm loving the work I'm doing but when it comes to my personal happiness, much of it is dependent on certain routines and patterns I try to maintain and so when I travel and get busy it becomes difficult to keep doing what I want to do to keep up my happiness levels. 

We all experience this from time to time, however, and the good news is that it's OK to get out of rhythm some times. In fact…it's life!

But this morning I thought I'd share with you some of the things I try to do to keep up my happiness habits even when I'm out of synch. So if you're struggling with your routine try some or all of these…

  • stick to as much of your routine as possible. This might sound obvious but it's worth reminding yourself that just because you can't do "everything" doesn't mean you can't do something

  • keep your top priorities in mind; and if you can't do everything then at least do the most important things

  • and reward yourself for what you do (try not to focus on what you can't do)

  • do more of whatever you do for your happiness and health…for example, try to do more short relaxation/meditation sessions, more but shorter exercise sessions and make sure you eat well and get enough sleep. These tend to suffer when we're busy yet when we're busy we need them more than ever

  • practice appreciation and gratitude. We should try to do this always but the good thing about these wonderful positive psychology strategies is that they will boost our happiness no matter where we are and/or what we're doing AND we can do them while we're doing other things and/or while we're on a plane/train/bus!

  • Keep in touch with your significant others. If you're away, then make sure you call or email or message your positive support mechanisms. It might not be as good as a real life chat or even a real life cuddle but you can certainly still enjoy some of the benefits from a distance

  • And do whatever you can to have fun. Different is sometimes unsettling but different is also exciting so enjoy what you can when you can and look for happiness where ever you are

So there they are…a few simple tips for maintaining happiness when you're out of your routine. What else do you do? What helps you? Please share your thoughts and tips on our Facebook page (see below).