how to make you happy
Sounds too good to be true, doesn’t it, an article on how to make yourself happy and feel good? Surely that’s the elusive goal we’re all striving for?
Well, actually, it’s easier to achieve than we think, and sometimes we can get so caught up in trying to be too smart, fancy, or perfect, that we forget about the little details and moments that bring joy to our lives.
Performance coach and bestselling author Anthony Robbins suggests quite succinctly:
“If you don’t have a plan for pleasure, you will have pain.”
In other words, if you don’t make room for the experiences that bring you positive and pleasant feelings, and actively bring them into your life, then you are resigning yourself to an inevitable succession of pain. Oh.
Think about your own creative life for a moment. What do you do that makes you feel good? Do you really know what brings you pleasure and joy? Do you know what makes you happy?
Don’t be too analytical or think on too large a scale. Start with the little things.
What brings a smile to your face and a glow to your heart? What puts an extra bounce in your step? What makes you laugh out loud?
It can be anything from writing a line of prose that you are truly satisfied with, looking at a picture of someone special to you, watching your favorite comedy movie, coming up with a new idea for a painting, eating chocolates and drinking wine, just remembering a fond memory, or a thousand other things.
Consider it this way. At any moment in our lives, we have an almost limitless number of positive options available to us that, at any moment, can increase our level of pleasure and therefore reduce our level of pain.
It’s time to be creative. Grab a pen and paper and make a list right now of 15 ways you can instantly feel good. Think of as many different contexts and areas as possible, from very small changes to major activities or choices. Be as imaginative and creative as possible. And don’t stop until you’re AT LEAST 15!
Please check back on this list and add to it as often as you can. Keep all the entries in a single notebook and call it your own “joy diary” gold “Pocket Pleasure Pad” or something else that will make you smile just thinking about it.
The key to this technique is to build as large a list as possible so that you have a vast resource of ways to make you feel good in one easily accessible place, before you have a chance to resort to negative or destructive methods.
The more you use the list and the more you add to it, the more it will become a habit and the more your level of pleasure and feel-good will naturally increase. The ideas will feed back and give rise to new ways of feeling happy.
Take this idea a step further by having a plan each day for something pleasurable, something that makes you feel good.
Schedule it in your journal or somewhere you will remember it and stick to the plan every day. You can start with a small simple activity or gesture, just enough to spark those positive feelings, and then build from there. It’s your plan and your life, make it as attractive and enjoyable as possible for yourself!
© Copyright 2006 Dan Goodwin