28 Aug Make yourself happier with these 5 key decisions
Here at The Happiness Institute we've said since Day One that achieving happiness requires nothing more than practising a few simple disciplines, each and every day.
What that means is that each and every day, we make multiple decisions and the choices or decisions we make will ultimately determine our health, wellbeing and happiness.
Entirely consistent with this philosophy is this article by Therese Borchard, from PsychCentral, which we thought we'd share with you here…
Recent happiness studies indicate that popularity, influence, and money do not make people happiest — even as our culture suggests otherwise.
Instead, autonomy, life purpose, and relationships are found at the top of the list.
In her new book, The Happiness Choice: The Five Decisions that Take You From Where You Are to Where You Want to Be, Marilyn Tam communicates what she learned, in research and through painful experiences, on how to be happy, healthy, and have a balanced life.
What are the five decisions that can make you happier?
Marilyn: Research has shown that a person is happiest, healthiest and most successful when he or she is making a positive difference; taking care of himself or herself physically, mentally, spiritually and has loving relationships.
There are five decisions we make every day to bring us either more happiness: what we choose to do with, and how we treat our:
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Body
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Relationships
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Money
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Spiritual life
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Community
Knowing your life purpose will help guide you in allocating the proper amount of energy and attention to each of these five key aspects of your life.
Dynamic balance is what we strive for — we can’t do it all but we can adjust the resources we dedicate toward each part of our life at each stage of our life. Situations and priorities change over time but knowing our reasons for being will guide us along the way. By being conscious about what we choose to do, we can get buy-in and cooperation from others more easily than when we are acting without awareness.
We can make purposeful decisions and plans when we are aware of our own values instead of simply reacting to outside blandishments and events. Knowing your personal priorities, you can take the steps to gain your dynamic balance and the life you’ve always dreamed of. Happiness and inner peace are yours when you choose what is in alignment with your life’s mission.
What are five decisions that can make you unhappy?
Marilyn: Conversely, if we ignore or overemphasize one or more of the five primary components of our life, there will be imbalance and negative consequences — unhappiness is sure to follow. The neglect or abuse of our body, relationships, money, spiritual life or community over time will result in illness, emotional distress, financial problems and a feeling of emptiness.
What are three ways you can shrug off impossible expectations?
…keep reading HERE for the full & original article