12 Ways to Start Living Happier Today

There’s a lot of pressure to live up to society’s standards of success. Get an important job. Make lots of money. Get married. Have kids. Buy stuff. Stay thin -or- Lose weight. These things are *supposed* to make you happy. And yet most of us aren’t.

Many of us feel trapped without a sense of personal choice or freedom. We lack a sense of peace and calm or even contentment with ourselves. There is only this constant striving, of attaining and obtaining in the hopes that it will finally make us feel like we’re enough, lovable, and okay.

But you don’t have to step too far outside your regular life to allow space for greater contentment, and freedom from the anxieties and pressures of modern life.

There are some key things you can do right now to nurture your personal freedom and achieve greater contentment with your life.

1. Let go of the past. Acknowledge your pain and suffering, learn from it, and then let it go.
2. You deserve love and good things in your life. Believe it in your heart and wish those things for yourself and for the other people in your life.
3. Be nice to others. Most of the time we’re only kind to friends, family, colleagues. But try being nice to the person you walk past in the street. People will remember how you treated them long after they have forgotten your words.
4. Be kind to yourself. We’re all doing the best we can. Making the best decisions we can with the information we have available to us. When you make a mistake, you learn from it and next time try to do better.
5. Acknowledge that you only have control over your actions and reactions. You can’t control anyone else’s actions or reactions, but you can control how you respond to them.
6. Take responsibility for your mistakes. But don’t let them define you.
7. Try to be at peace with change and accept that it is a natural part of life.
8. Set goals but be flexible. We all want to achieve things in life but sometimes it doesn’t turn out the way we planned. So be prepared for the monkey wrenches and adapt to changing circumstances.
9. Don’t compare yourself (or your life) to others. Everyone has their path, good times, and bad. And no one’s life looks exactly like it does on social media. People always display their best sides, and most enviable traits, and rarely acknowledge weakness or when things are going badly.
10. Choose compassion. For yourself and others. Most people are trying to do their best most of the time.
11. Be grateful. For where you are, what you have – all of it. Even the stuff that sucks. Don’t get caught up in a dissatisfaction loop where everyone’s life looks better. Chances are you are already living an abundant life.
12. Relax, chill, and BE. Learn to just accept and allow things to be. So much of the time our struggles stem from resistance to what is happening around us and to us. Most of the time, situations work themselves out. Breathe, and let go of the anxiety. Allow and trust that the Universe will provide you with what you need.