Thursday, January 17, 2013

How to be happy - my new year's resolutions


So I've been watching a lot of YouTube videos recently, an one of my favorite people to watch, Nikki Phillippi, is doing a series this month called "How to be happy January". And that is actually something I've been thinking about a lot lately. I'm the kind of person who is very happy if everything is good, but once things starts getting a little rougher I'm not exactly a ball of sunshine. It doesn't have to be anything major at all, but it really affects not only my mood, but also the mood of people around me. I have a tendency to always look either to the past or to the future and never really enjoying my life right now. I will think about how good my life was last year or a couple of years ago, or I'll say to myself that in a few years everything will be a lot better, when I only have achieved that goal and gotten those things and so on. I've realized that this is not the way that I want to live my life, and that I am never going to be fully happy with anything later on if I can't enjoy my life right now.


"If you're not enjoying the journey you probably won't enjoy the destination"
- Joe Tye

There is nothing wrong with my life. I am not sick, I have a loving family that I am very close to, the greatest boyfriend and a handful of really good friends, a nice apartment and I'm taking a pretty good education. So what is there not to be happy about?
If you had asked me that question a little while ago, not that long at all actually, I would probably have named a dozen different things. But at the end of the day I've realized that these things are only minor details. Life is never 100% perfect, but that's just.. well, life. I am not going to be happy sitting around and waiting for my life to be perfect, because it never will be. But I've also realized that it's pretty darn close. So that is going to be my new years resolution this year. I am going to appreciate the things that are in my life right now and spend my time doing things that make me happy. I am not saying that I will go crazy and do fun stuff all the time, but I am going to try to focus on the positive and not the negative, which shouldn't be that hard as there are way more positive than negative in life.
I realize that you shouldn't just ignore your problems, but that's not really what this is about. I'm a big believer in solving problems contra ignoring them, but dealing with problems is a different thing than drowning in them.

And I also have the "regular" resolutions.. To be more active, eat healthily, be more organized, study regularly and so on, but I feel like all of these tie back to being happy. These are all things that I know will make me feel better and happier if I keep them up. If I work out regularly and eat food that's good for me, I know that it will affect my mood and how I feel. I will feel a lot better, both physically and mentally, and will therefore also be happier.

As any other new year's resolution I probably won't be able to keep this up every second of every day. I'll have days where I just want to crawl back into bed and stay there. But I feel like when your attitude toward something changes your actions will follow, and hopefully I will have a lot fewer "down-days" and a lot more good days as the year progress.

So, if you're still reading.. What are your new years resolutions? And what do you do to be happy?


11 comments:

  1. Great advice, I totally agree :) x

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  2. I came across your blog on elleandblair.com! I like how you are looking outside of typical resolutions and looking at how to make yourself happier overall.Great post, thanks for sharing and good luck to you!

    xoxo, HELLOH MOLLY

    http://hellohmolly.blogspot.com/
    https://twitter.com/HELLOH_MOLLY
    http://www.facebook.com/pages/HELLOH-MOLLY/214142732056158

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    1. Thank you! Your comment made me smile :)
      xx, Siri

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  3. Me and my friend were talking about this the other day! We said that we need to enjoy right now, and stop moaning so much because we're both really lucky:) Great post!

    Sophie x

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    1. Yeah, it's easy to get caught up in the small things sometimes, but there's usually always something to be grateful for :) Thank you!!
      xx

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  4. very interesting question....i went through several years of 'quarter life crisis' ... where i felt like i could just not be happy no matter what... and im not sure what changed this year, but i just feel so happy about everything. Maybe it's lowered expectations, but I am pretty much happy with all aspects of my life right now. I think it's just figuring out who you are and what makes you happy and being yourself. I know that all sounds so cliche, but knowing it and feeling it is quite different. One has to kinda take the journey on his/her own to really understand it, ya know?

    -liv
    http://chocolivlovelaugh.blogspot.kr

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    1. It's good to hear that things work out and it really is possible to be truly happy! I am still working on figuring everything out, but I feel like I am getting closer. I think you are right in that everyone has to find out what makes them happy. I also think it has a lot to do with your attitude towards things. So I'm working on it, and hopefully I'll get to where you are someday soon :) Thanks for the comment!

      xx, Siri

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  6. Great advice! This year, I´m trying to believe in myself again. Last year I embarked on a spiritual journey and everyday tried to be happy for the things surrounding me. I grew up so much after that. Wish you the best on this journey ^_^

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  7. Hi, I was just checking out your blog and this post was really good to read, I've posted a similar blog post about things to do before I'm 21 and this year. It would be great if you checked it out.

    Gabriella

    www.bellequattro.blogspot.co.uk

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