Everyone likes to be happy. Everyone wants to be happy. And everyone constantly searches for ways to be happy. We look for happiness in our possessions, in our relationships and sometimes we search for it and find it within ourselves. Let’s look at a few things that we can do to become happier and merrier people and enjoy each day with a light and happy heart. 

1. Finding Happiness In Relationships 

Human beings are social beings hence one cannot escape being involved with one another in positive or negative ways. The quality of the relationships that we enjoy directly impacts the quality of our emotional well being. 

We have seen countless posts on social media that encourage us to leave toxic people and tell us never to feel guilty about removing negative people from our lives. Such posts that are generally shared by broken friends who intend to pass hints at the toxic and negative people in their lives, and ofcourse in their friend lists, actually do carry a lot of truth. As long as you are entangled in the wrong relationships, you will find yourself being drawn in to endless drama. Some people are truly great at making others lives miserable! Look out for people who seem to find sadistic satisfaction in competing with you or the ones whose sole delight in life is to criticize others and bring others down. Try to stay away from people who always see the negative side of situations, as well as from those who have a habit of stabbing people in the back. 

Once you have distanced yourself from the wrong people try to find the right ones to connect with too. But if your intention is to become a weird hermit or a socially awkward loner, you can ignore the next few lines! Find people who always talk of possibilities and keep their conversations generally void of spiteful gossip. Make time to be with those who truly care for you and invest your energy in nurturing such relationships. Be with the dreamers and the doers and you will become a dreamer and a doer in no time too. 

However you should also remember that all black or all white characters only appear in the local teledramas. You know these types: The spiteful mother in law, the ardent lover, the prodigal son, the relentless office flirt, the cruel sister and ofcourse that amazing bff who strangely seems to have no life of her own. So be prepared to accept and tolerate the flaws of the people around you too. After all no one is perfect. 

2. Enjoying The Little Things In Life 

You know how people say happiness cannot be bought. Of course some people sarcastically say that BMWs can be bought and massive mansions can be bought. But there is a difference between satisfying greed and finding true happiness. Aim for the latter in your life. 

The little things in life, which often go unheeded and unnoticed because of the mammoth tasks that we have to accomplish before the sun sets and the stars appear in the sky, actually have great potential to bring you peace of mind. 

Start with the setting sun and the starry skies. 

Take time to gaze at the glorious pastel hues of the western skies in the late hours of the day and let that majestic sight soothe your soul. And tonight before you kiss your kids good night, take a minute to watch the silver stars with them, as they twinkle at you (stars, not kids) from far away galaxies. Take a walk with your family or by yourself whenever you get the chance and enjoy breathing in fresh air for a change. The broad walks that have appeared all over Colombo are ideal for exploration too. Make a little child happy, smile at a stranger (the crazy stalker in the bus is not a stranger), do simple favors to others and enjoy the beauty of silence as you sip your steaming morning coffee or tea. Give yourself opportunities to discover that raindrops and roses and whiskers on kittens are all charming things after all. 

3. Take Good Care Of Yourself 

This is one of the most important things that one must do to find true happiness. Given the fast paced world of today, from morning to night we have no choice but to work, work, work, work, work.. (didn’t  Rihanna just sing in your head?) But it is quite important that we slow down and learn to take good care of our physical and emotional selves. Take time to eat, pray and love and no you do not have to cross the seven seas like Julia Roberts did in that movie. Stop eating and drinking (and smoking) things that you know deteriorate your health. Work out often and always try to spend at least a few minutes every day in meditation. Remove the toxicants from your body and mind everyday as a habit and soon you will learn that life is truly beautiful. 

4. Disconnect From The Internet 

We often seem to think that happiness is uninterrupted WiFi but actually too much time spent on the internet can make us quite depressed! 

Take a look at your Facebook newsfeed and prove me wrong if you can. Pictures of your friends having the time of their lives taking selfies and eating morsels fit for kings and travelling to places that you didn’t even know existed can make you feel like your life is dull and unprofitable in so many ways. If it isn’t the celebrity like photos it is sad and depressing status updates about things that don’t even remotely concern you. Then you stop in your tracks and take a stock of all the words you spoke to your friend in the recent past and apprehensively wonder if that status has anything to do with you. Even if all your friends play the right tune on your social media, spending too much time staring at the glowing devices can disconnect us from the real people around us. It can make your spouse feel unwanted (unless of course your spouse too is glued to a device), your children feel neglected and slowly the best days of your life will slip by unnoticed while you keep yourself busy snooping around to see what other people are doing with their lives. So start enjoying real conversations, take dinner together with family, read bedtime stories to your children and stop posting pictures of you doing all these things as well. Afterall you lived without the internet a few decades ago and you did just fine! 

5. Find A Hobby 

Oh the good old days when everyone’s hobby was to collect stamps! Those big and bulky stamp albums are probably rotting away in many shelves as the coveted stamps now refuse to come in the mail. Since stamp collection will prove to be a challenging hobby now, try to find new ways that you can creatively spend your spare time. Take a course of photography if that is what interests you and don’t listen to the people who would call you a “monkey with a DSLR”. You know it is better to be a monkey with a DSLR than to be a monkey without one! Write if you can and start a blog if you can. There are tons of websites that teach you how to make mouth watering dishes so if you have the ingredients at hand, try some recipes out. You can even ask your mother how she makes that delicious chicken curry or the creamy, golden dhal curry to begin with! Do whatever makes you happy. Grow flowers in your garden or try your hand at some creative DIY projects, or learn how to sew, crotchet and knit or even start learning a new language. Remember that everything you spend your time on, does not have to bring you money. Simple satisfaction will most often be sufficient. 

And now will you switch off your device and go out there and make some friends or get a hobby? (Did that sound rude?)