IT'S International Day of Happiness, so we caught up with our Positive Wellbeing Workers Jonny Taylor and Laura Northall to discuss five tips for happiness...
Spend time with loved ones
It is important to spend time around positive people who want the best for you. There are a lot of people in life who are quite negative in their output, and they can alter your perceptions on your achievements, your goals, and ultimately, your happiness. Your loved ones should feel happiness from seeing you be happy and succeed, and appreciate you for who you are and what you are worth, and be ready to support you if you fall.
Do the things that you love doing
It is really important to do the things that you love doing. It is really helpful to practice your hobbies to build a sense of confidence through learning new skills. Doing what you love can relieve stress and anxiety and replace these negative feelings with a much more positive force.
Challenge negative thinking
It is easy to get into negative thinking patterns, so it is important to ground yourself in the present moment and see what you are able to change. A lot of the time we are not able to change what is going to happen in the future or what has happened in the past already, but we can affect the present moment.
Be grateful
Showing gratitude is important. A lot of the time we moan about what we don't have, rather than focus on what we do currently have. There are a lot of people that have less than us in the world, yet we tend to moan about things that aren't going our way or could be better, whereas in reality things are much more positive than we think.
Learn to love yourself
Learning to love yourself is about coming to terms with who you are. It may take a long time to find who you truly are, and you may have to have a lot of experiences to find yourself, but if you know yourself and you feel comfortable with who you are then you will learn to love yourself a little bit more. It's really hard to not care what people think about you, but if you can do that, then you will love yourself a little bit more.
There is no all encompassing guide to happiness, but the above tips from our positive wellbeing duo may help.
For more information on positive wellbeing, please contact jonny.taylor@albionfoundation.co.uk or laura.northall@albionfoundation.co.uk.