Throughout my life I have always looked for happiness externally and up until recently I continued the same trend in my life. I soon realized that this external sense of happiness that I was seeking is an endless road leading to essentially nowhere. So, in summary I am not here to tell you what happiness is and where you can find it. I am no expert on the topic of happiness as the road to being happy is infinite. Happiness is also not a destination it is a way of being that you should feel every single day. I can however tell you how to find happiness within – because honestly that is where you should start. So here we go:

1. Stop trying to make everyone around you happy – I have realized after some time in my life that making other happy is close to impossible. Everyone will always complain and will never be happy with you. Please understand that the problem isn’t you – it is them. They have so many of their own issues that they are unable to see past through them. Honestly, in trying to make others happy you run further away from your own happiness.
2. Focus on what makes you smile and laugh – Too often we focus on the negatives in our life and let them overpower the positives in our life. I have seen many people willingly choose unhappiness because that is the most comfortable decision. You know what is crazy about that? Unhappiness actually keeps people comfortable because this is the feeling they are most familiar with. Why not smile and laugh instead? Isn’t that more energetic? Doesn’t being unhappy drain your energy? Choose your happy!
3. Did you recently look inwards? How often do you listen to yourself? No, I do not mean to literally sit and talk to yourself. I mean, really, how often do you listen to yourself? I know that the daily routines and life in general can get in the way of that but this is the single most important thing to do. You can do a check-in with yourself every day to make sure you are listening to you. This check-in can be as short as five minutes! Do you have five minutes to listen to the most important person in your life (YOU)?
4. Appreciate yourself! We are so hard on ourselves and forget to appreciate ourselves. Most of the time we are busy criticizing ourselves instead of complimenting ourselves. Why are we so hard on ourselves? Comparisons. We are constantly comparing ourselves and because of that are not able to find a way to appreciate ourselves.

Happiness within is the greater happiness – have an excellent week!

Sincerely,

MANISHA SAREEN