There seems to be a greater focus on being happy in today’s world. While happiness is a worthwhile goal, many people tackle happiness like they tackle buying a house. They start focusing on the final destination instead of focusing on what they can do today to achieve the ultimate goal. Here are ways to begin to change your life today.
“The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.” – Lao Tzu
One might argue that you will never achieve the ultimate happiest life because there is always room to be even happier. What makes you happier will continue to change as you evolve, so focusing on the end goal is a short-sided approach. Want to be happier? Start now.
Here are 10 ways to change your life in 10 minutes or less – beginning today.
1 – Learn Something New
The need to learn something doesn’t stop when we stop going to school. Learning for the sake of learning is what makes us human and what allows us to continue to grow and evolve into our best selves.
A world of interesting information and knowledge awaits and it has never been easier to learn something new. You can start to enhance your life by watching a Ted talk, listening to a podcast or subscribe to feeds like Did You Know? and Tell Me Why?. Whatever it is, learn something new today.
Learning makes us confident, feeds our creative soul and broadens our perspective. It doesn’t have to be a formal process; you can start by devoting just ten minutes a day to learning something new.
2 – Breathe
Deep and purposeful breathing is our best tool against anxiety, frustration, and overall negative feelings. When you start to feel the tension in your neck or butterflies in your stomach, take a minute and breathe deeply.
Close your eyes and focus on your breath. Breathe in deeply through your nose and visualize your entire body filling up with your breath. Then slowly exhale through your mouth and watch the breath leave.
Do this five times and feel the incredibly relaxing effects it has on your body and mind.
3 – Hug
Virginia Satir, a family therapist, contends, “We need four hugs a day for survival. We need eight hugs a day for maintenance. We need twelve hugs a day for growth.”
This relatively simple practice can help reduce stress, improve our mood and make us feel good about ourselves. Believe it or not, research shows that hugs can be effective in healing sickness too. Now, go out and hug someone or twelve someones today. Indeed, it will certainly change your life.
4 – 10 Minutes of Yoga
The benefits of yoga are pretty well-known including stress release, an increase in fitness, improved immunity, and inner peace. Even so, plenty of people are reluctant to start practicing it because they think they can’t do the poses they see on Facebook.
Well, what better way to start a yoga practice than in your home with a simple 5-minute yoga sequence. This will help you start each day with added flexibility and calm and watch how your perspective will change.
5 – Visualize
Spend a few minutes visualizing your perfect day and watch what happens. Visualize making good choices, doing great work, laughing with good friends and having a good day and a better day will magically happen.
When we bring our intention to doing things that make us feel good, we respond by making it a reality through our actions. Visualize and expect the day to be a great day, exactly the way you want to be and enjoy it as it happens.
6 – Eat for a positive mood.
The foods we eat affect our mood and if you want to change your life, then choose foods that affect your mood for the positive. Foods affect people in different ways so when you eat something, listen to your body and see how you feel.
If you feel good, keep eating it and if you don’t then stop. This doesn’t mean you have to give up the foods you love because they don’t agree with you, but understanding how they affect you will help you make better food choices.
7 – Go Outside
Nothing feeds the soul like some fresh air, and a good boost of vitamin D. Make it a point to go outside when you are feeling “blah” or need a quick break. Doing so will increase your mood, make you more productive and bring out your creative mind.
8 – Declutter
Clutter can rob you of the vital energy you need to live your best life. Spending just a few minutes decluttering the spaces you live and work in can have a huge impact on enhancing your life.
Make a conscious choice to declutter. This will free you up to appreciate what you have and focus your attention on the things that matter most. Start small with a shelf or a drawer. You will be surprised how far you can get with just ten minutes of decluttering.
9 – Compliment Others
Complimenting others helps you as much as them. It can build trust, spark creativity and make you and the other person feel good. The best benefit of all? It takes the focus off of you.
The next time you are feeling down or stuck, start complimenting others and watch your self-esteem increase.
10 – Ten Minutes of Gratitude
Focusing on the things that we are grateful for every day brings the good in our life into focus. What better way to change your life for the better than to remind ourselves daily why our life is already so awesome?
Spend a few minutes every day reflecting on all the things that make you happy and make you feel good. There is no better way to live a great life than to realize how great life really is.
Now it’s your turn. What activities do you do that help change your life for the better?
