One of the everyday questions of life is “are humans meant to be happy?” Well if we were not designed to be happy then you would not have ended up on this page
But the only way we can tell what happiness is and why we chase it is by knowing sadness first. We cannot look for happiness if we do not have an idea about sadness
It’s how life is designed and there is an opposite of everything and in this case, the opposite of happiness is sadness. And if ever say to yourself that I just want to be happy in life, we have got you covered
Below we look at the possible way you can stay happy alone with yourself and life in general and things you should not do as they will make you sad
1. Do not take criticism as hate but as advice to improve on yourself
Every time someone criticizes us, most people claim that someone is hating on them and the critics someone gets they call them haters
Others say critics make them stronger which could be true
But the other side of criticism is people are pointing out things you are doing wrong and 99.9% of the time they are right
One thing you should know about humans is it is easier to see the wrongs and mistakes of other people and also find solutions to them
But when we are in the same exact situation we hardly see our own wrongs let alone find solutions, it’s the people around us that see them
So this connected to happiness in that if you take critics as haters it’s going to affect your happiness considering we would all love to be loved and appreciated
But if we have more people hating on us then definitely our happiness will be affected too
2. Stop trying to please people
It’s true you cannot make everyone happy but that’s no excuse for making everyone sad or angry.
The thing is if you try to please someone and they do not show gratitude, it will affect your happiness too considering the reason we try to make it up to other people is to make them happy
But if they do not show any sign of gratitude from our efforts to please them then it will affect our happiness too
Besides at times our happiness lies in other people’s happiness like a lover and if your partner is not happy you may not be happy too
The solution to this is doing something for someone else expecting little or nothing in return as an expectation not returned is going to bring sadness
3. Get hobbies
You cannot spend the rest of your life doing things you hate and that why you will need a hobby
Since most people hate the work they do not hate necessarily working, it would be a very good thing to get a hobby you love
This will at least make you feel happy on days you are free or not working as a hobby turns out to be doing things you love which will definitely make you feel happy or at least less sad with activities you hate
4. Do not take social media so serious
As of today, Instagram ranks as one of the top causes of depression but this is basically because people comparing their behind scenes with other people’s highlight reels
Unless you have no emotions you will definitely feel bad when your friends are posting trips around the world while also showing the new cars they bought
And when you compare that to your self you have nothing to post to show off
The search for relevance on social media is real but if you have realized nobody ever posts any bad thing in their life, it does not mean they do not have any bad thing happening in their lives
But social media has turned as a platform for showcasing our success even if it is not true and then deal with our problems and failures behind the behind closed doors when no one is watching
This also a result of people being superficial in that if they see anything bad about you they will not associate with you the end result is hiding anything a bad you have
So if you take the good life people post on social media as the only thing happening in their lives it will make you feel bad thus you will end up sad when you should be happy all the time considering you would spend a lot of time on social media
5. Stop comparing yourself to others
This is a little more unrealistic, it’s like stop eating as humans are designed by nature to always compare things between what is more and what is less or what is better and what is worse
But if we do compare ourselves to others we will look for what makes them better than us which will make us feel bad hence being sad and if we compare and realize we are better than them then we will look down on them because we are better which could be good for our happiness but of course not good for humanity
So for the sake comparisons, the only person you should compare yourself to is the person you were yesterday for instance if you were earning 100 dollars a month last year and this year you earn 500 dollars, that’s that a good improvement that should make you happy
You can also compare yourself to others and see where you stand or what you lack that others have and you get so that you can also progress in life
But if you compare yourself to someone who was earning 50 dollars and now earns 5,000 you will get an ache in your heart because of envy which will make you sad
6. Find your purpose in life
Do you know why you are here on earth? Well most people do not know neither do they care
But finding your purpose or calling on earth would bring you happiness as you would not spend the rest of your life chasing happiness which you might not even find because you will be chasing after the wrong things
You can tell you found your calling if what you are doing adds value on you and the people around you in any way and makes the world a better place and after achieving all that you will definitely look back on what you have done and be happy
7. Build close relationships
If you cannot have anyone to share what your heart feels, what you hate or how your day went then you are going to make your heart heavy
Even though it’s easy to tell your secrets to a stranger because your heart feels lighter and your reputation intact but you should not be telling your problems to strangers
They are likely not to do anything about it apart from consoling you; you need friends or family that will help you fix them apart from making you feel better which will, of course, make you happy
8. Set goals to achieve in life
Well you should have goals you looking forward to achieving in life and not living each day as it comes
The goals will create a challenge in your life to look up to every day and when you achieve them you will be happy
I said goals not goal because if it is one goal in life and you achieve it there will not be much to look forward to
9. Use the money to buy happiness
This is one of the core reasons we work every day so that we can buy things that will make us happy.
So you might as well work hard and make money and buy things will bring you happiness
10. Smile
This is a quick and fast one, just try it right now and smile for nothing actually just laugh and you will feel a lot better than before, just put a smile on your face now
11. Be grateful and contented
Seriously are you happy and contented with what life is offering you or you still want more
It’s quite hard for humans to be contented but you are not here to prove philosophy theories true
The truth if you cannot be happy for even the little you achieved, what if you never get anything bigger.
Are you going to be sad for the rest of your life then?
Am sure you get it, be content with what you have and that will bring you happiness but do not settle for less
12. Meditation helps you attain happiness
Meditation is thinking deeply in silence to make your mind calm. Sometimes you need some time off to rest and reboot your energy come back better and feeling stronger
Mediation also helps to let go of grudges as it helps your mind let go of all the negative energy you may have been holding in through thinking deeply about something like revenge
13. Do not hold grudges forever. Let go and forgive
Well, the truth is, it’s not easy to let go. And holding grudges is as human as humanity can be.
Think about it’s not easy to forgive perhaps that’s why even God has not yet forgiven us from our sins unless we repent
But are you going to hate someone forever until they apologies? What if they do not do what you want, are going to hold that conflict between them and you all your life
Such things just make your heart feel heavy; you should not make people meet certain conditions for you to forgive them. Leave that God for as you are only human
Forgive and move on but never forget what they taught you. Doing this will also help you to be happy after a breakup
Otherwise, you will jeopardize your happiness for nothing
14. Do a job you love
I would say 90% of the people in the world work because they have to, it’s not that they really have a choice because they have to work and earn something to pay bills and take care of their needs whilst also attain their wants
It’s one of the reasons people are always looking forward to the weekend and break away from the daily activity they hate so much
You are not going to be happy doing something you hate every day of your life and neither will you be happy at work
But a few have broken out of the normal and decided to do things they love or things they want and have gone ahead to earn from it
Unlike in the past years, today you can even earn almost from anything you love which will keep you happy, if you love writing you can become a writer or a blogger and earn from it, if you love any sports you can heavily earn from them as an athlete while at the same time enjoying what you are doing
15. Reduce on caring about what people say about you
It would be unrealistic if I said stop caring about what people say about you.
One of the greatest lies people tell themselves is they do not care about what others say about them but if you think about it deeply you really do give a damn about what people say about you even people you will never associate within your life and this is going to affect your happiness
If it’s all negativity people are saying about you feel sad because naturally, we all want to receive positive feedback and approval from people around us
Trust me there lots of things you love that you would be doing if you did not care about people’s reaction towards you
That’s why we do things like wearing nice clothes; I do not think we dress smartly for our dogs or trees
But now that you know people’s approval and judgment towards you will have an effect on your happiness, you can put it under control and not let it steal away your joy
If you think you do not care about what people say about you, you are just living in denial
Conclusion
At the end of this article, you will have to know things that are affecting your happiness in life and you should have learned things you need to do in order to be happy in life all the time, at least most of the time as we cannot be happy all the time
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