Fill Your Life With Authentic Happiness

Authentic HappinessHow About Some Authentic Happiness

Authentic happiness is a funny thing. Many experts say that authentic happiness comes from within. This may be true, but there are also specific experiences that make us happy.

Maybe having a great day at the park with your kids filled you with authentic happiness. Or perhaps that promotion you’d been working for finally came to pass. Bet you felt happy then! However, you probably also know someone who seems happy all the time, even when things aren’t going well in their life.

So how can you have more of this elusive thing that comes both from within and from without? Luckily, there are specific things we can do to bring more authentic happiness into our lives. We can also choose to remove things from our lives that may prevent happiness.

Try these ideas to simplify your life and focus more on doing what brings you real authentic happiness: 

Unplug from email. Everyone loves to get email, as long as it isn’t spam. But the enjoyment is only temporary. Think about the amount of time you spend on email over the course of a week. Is all that time you’re spending making you happy?

    • Do what you can to eliminate the 95% of the email that means the least to you, and limit this communication tool to those people you care about the most. Just knowing that you don’t have email piling-up 24/7 provides some mental relief which will help make way for happiness.

Ditch all the stuff. Go through your belongings one by one and purge the stuff that you don’t need or love. All the extra stuff is just getting in your way and tying up your resources. Sell the stuff, pitch it, donate it, or give it away to friends.

Cancel cable television. Cable TV is practically a given in our country. But the time it takes away from the average person’s life is staggering. And no one is happier from watching television. It merely serves as a distraction from the real issues, both positive and negative, in your life.

  • Try limiting your viewing to 2-3 hours a week. This will free up plenty of time to do other things you love or work toward goals that are important to you. Reaching those goals will, in all likelihood, bring you more happiness than excessive TV viewing!

Getting rid of these things might not directly increase your authentic happiness, but it’ll allow you some time and space to do other things that will increase your authentic happiness.

Now that you’re done with the big steps, what’s next? Take some time to consider these areas of your life:

  • Spend time on your relationships. How is your relationship with your spouse or partner? Is there something that could be improved upon? Making this relationship as positive as possible is crucial to your happiness.
  • Evaluate your social network. Are your friendships and social activities supporting your happiness? In what ways do they make you happy? How could you increase your positive feelings in this area?
  • Assess your health. Are you as healthy as you could be? Are you happy with your body? What changes could you make to your routine to bring about the results you desire?
  • Be honest with yourself about your career, finances, and hobbies.Look at each of these areas and determine if you would be happier with some changes. If so, make a plan with some easy action steps to get you started on a path that brings you more joy.

Now that you’ve gotten rid of the dead weight and changed the things that aren’t as good as they could be you have room to add in activities that support your authentic happiness. Don’t be in a big hurry to take up all the new space; enjoy the peace and quiet.

If you have an activity you’d really love to add to your life, now is the time to do it. Over time, continuing to add new things that bring joy will enhance your overall authentic happiness. Your life will be forever changed.

Having a life filled with authentic happiness is really quite simple. Just get rid of all the objects and activities that aren’t adding to your joy. At this point, you’ll have the time, space, and money available to add more satisfying features to your life.

Try implementing just one or two items from this plan today. Before you know it, your level of authentic happiness will be higher than ever.

Be sure to also try these ideas to get started in discovering your inner strength.

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  • Dawn

    I love the idea to unplug from email but how do you eliminate the 95% that really doesn’t mean anything to you? It isn’t like you can just stop them from coming in, so what do you suggest? And ditching the stuff is something I have been working on for a while now it is just a very slow going process. You have a lot of good ideas in your article thank you.

  • Jeffrey

    I would love to cancel cable but I think the rest of the family would shoot me if I did. I myself would much rather be outside or exercising. Maybe I can get them to do the 2-3 hours a week and then we can also spend time working on our relationships with each other. You’ve put a lot of work into this article and it shows.

  • Josephine

    Attitude is defined as the position or bearing as indicating action, feeling, or mood. And it is our actions, feelings, or moods that determine the actions, feelings, or moods of others. Our attitude tells the world what we expect in return. If it’s a cheerful, expectant attitude, it says to everyone with whom we come in contact that we expect the best in our dealings with our world. We tend to live up to our expectations. And others give to us, as far as their attitudes are concerned, what we expect.

  • Vickie

    When I first started reading this article, I though it might be a rather simplistic way of thinking, but last thing the author pointed out really made me think about how I often feel somewhat stressed when I am overwhelmed by email. The thought of trying to get through it all can be daunting and stressful. And when you just select all of it and simply delete it, it actually feels empowering and very relaxing.

  • Evelyn

    I think simplicity is a key to happiness. The more simple your life is, the less stress you will have. Those who try to take on too much in the pursuit of riches will inevitably feel the stress from the pressure that they place on themselves and which comes from the competition when they get one up on you and you feel compelled to respond or keep up. Stress management is an acquired skill everyone should master.

  • Elizabeth

    Giving constructive criticism can be a very difficult thing to do, it all depends on the recipient. If I am giving constructive criticism to an employee and they get angry about it, it is tough to continue in a civil manner and you can tell they don’t care so they aren’t going to change anything their doing. Then again if they are genuinely interested in it I know they want to grow.

  • Edward

    Well I am glad that you mentioned this as a way to achieve authentic happiness because I may have to cancel cable just because we can’t afford it anymore and I am going to need something to convenience the family that it isn’t a bad thing. Maybe I will be able to get them to do the 2-3 hours a week thing to build our relationships. You’ve given us a lot of great advice.

  • Tammy

    If I could eliminate 95% of the email that doesn’t matter to me, I could get a lot more accomplished in a workday which would make me really happy. It isn’t my home computer, it is my work computer, so it isn’t like I can just delete stuff without reading it. You’ve got a lot of good ideas in your article and my family and I are going to use as many as we can.

  • Samuel

    All of your advice and tips are great but to my family they are just unrealistic. They can’t do without their cable, games and computer. I remember when kids used to go outside all the time but not anymore they set and mess with electronics all the time. Maybe I need to go ahead and put this to the test though. I’ll let you know how it goes.

    • sudha

      What the parents do.. children follow…Dont try to sit and watch with them… after half an hour.. just go shut down the tv at once.. just blindly put the tv switch off.. this works just distracting kids from watching their tv.. if they insists important scene, wait there, for ten mins.. then close.. this will become a habit…well, it is not overnight.. but it happens at my home…

  • Ryan

    I don’t know about canceling my cable TV. My television programs are by no means a cause of stress. They are a relief from the stress of work. I can’t imagine how out of touch I would feel if I didn’t or couldn’t watch all of the sports programng which I watch almost daily during basketball and football seasons. Besides, I write a sports blog. So I guess you can say that sports are part of my work.

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  • http://gettingincome.com femi

    tv is a big distract for me . I find it very hard to give up especially now that we have the olympics sports . so my question is what can i replace tv with so i can relax and be productive at the same

  • sudha

    Actually, I dont have a habit of watching television, max, 2-3 per month is more…. but I try to do more than i can… i take up more work… i am a workaholic… both in personal and official….. i take up hobbies, just an hour time is enough for me to start a new hobby or training classes for myself.. I can balance.. i switch off mails, phones, and listen to music and pursue my hobbies, take kids for a walk… My biggest problem is i have few temporary issues with temporary solutions without long term solutions.. thats where i get caught without knowing how to solve it….

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