Want To Get Happier?...

Have you ever wondered, “how might life be better if I spent as much energy investing in my happiness as I did spending time on social media?” I’m on a mission this year to get back to my self-care routines and find little hacks to get happier and have a more stress free year than 2018.

One thing I have been reading up on in particular is how owning less ‘stuff’ and letting go of that ‘more is better’ mentality can actually translate to us being way happier. But how hard is it! I’ll be the first to admit that every time I jump onto my emails or even socials I find something that I WANT, not need, that makes me a little sad that I can’t just pop it straight into cart and hit the checkout button! It’s no wonder I feel this way when we live in a culture that tells us almost everywhere we look that ‘more is better’.

So what I am dedicated to doing this year instead is stopping for a moment, taking a look around, and focusing on all the things that I DO have but just take for granted super easily. Each night I’ve started writing in my gratitude journal again things like – I am grateful for: my husband for being a loving partner and supporting me in everything I do, being in a position to buy fresh healthy produce and eat delicious healthy nutritious meals every night, having freedom in my job where I can have coffee with the girls in the middle of the day, I get to work with my best friend in the world hosting retreats in Bali. And it’s not even just being aware of these things, its being aware and remembering that someone in the world at the moment would give their left arm to have these things that I so easily take for granted.

Over the weekend I started reading the book 'The Happiness Curve (Why life gets better after midlife)' and in the first few chapters author Jonathan Rauch points out that its a fundamental human impulse to compare ourselves to others (especially in our peer group). But the interesting thing is we are more likely to compare UP rather than DOWN, meaning we look at those with more than us whether it be more income, more opportunity, better job etc rather than comparing to those who have less than us and feeling a sense of gratitude for what we have right now...

Gratitude is everything, I think it is the key to happiness, and I am trying my hardest this year to stay in the present moment and aware of the incredible things that I do have (and not adding that dress/ bag/ shoes to cart when the temptation arises).