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Here are some tips to increase your happiness quotient!
Know Your Body
Neurotransmitters impact your energy levels and mood. Understanding more about them can help you navigate the road to happiness.
Seven key neurotransmitters are epinephrine (adrenaline), dopamine, serotonin, norepinephrine, acetylcholine, GABA, and glutamate. Neurotransmitters affect your happiness quotient.
There are many more neurotransmitters, but the point is this: when all the neurotransmitters are firing and sending out endorphins, your body is functioning at peak performance and happiness kicks in.
My daughter-in-law analyzed neurotransmitters in women for several years. She found it was common for women to have a low serotonin count, which can contribute to depression. Eating a healthy diet, getting proper rest, meditation, and moderate amounts of sun exposure all help keep our neurotransmitters in balance.
Know Your Mind
Awareness of self is the key to happiness. Take time during each year to assess how your perceptions might be changing. We often continue practices that no longer bring us joy merely out of habit. Be aware of what activities lift your energy and those that lower it — try to minimize the latter!
Stay Present
Being in the now, staying one hundred percent present in the moment, is the most effective way to bring understanding to your being. Meditation is one of the most effective practices for keeping your awareness solid and functioning.
Stay Connected
It is healthy to acknowledge that you will experience periods of loneliness. If you feel the pull of isolation, you might consider reversing your mood with:
- Plan your day, including downtime.
- Meditate once a day for 10 minutes.
- Exercise: go to the gym, take a yoga or aquatic class, walk with a friend, listen to music,ride a bike, and
- Have tea or coffee with your best friend or someone you want to get to know.
- Find a dance studio, meet new people, and smile more!Stay PositiveNegativity perpetuates negativity. If you feel sluggish, turn upside down for several minutes. This posture stimulates your neurotransmitters. You will discover less resistance in your attitudes and feeling. Or get on your yoga mat and stretch, which opens your body up to positive energy. Stretch Your MindLearn about different people, places, and things rather than spending time on social media.Practice GratitudeGive gratitude for living a good life. Gratitude is the basis of living well, kindness, and generosity of spirit.
Stay Curious
Learn something new daily, enroll in classes, take up a hobby that intrigues you, and seek out people or groups that engage your curiosity.
Remember Happiness Is in You
Happiness comes from within. Self-love is one of the key elements to fostering happiness.
It is a sweet feeling when you encounter yourself daily, giving gratitude, providing meaningful activity for your mind, body, and spirit, knowing that you are living your life to the fullest on the road to daily happiness.
Joan Frances Moran is a creative thought leader exploding with the potential of now. A lifelong learner with an unrelenting curiosity, Joan started teaching yoga at 60 and unlocked the key to cultivating daily happiness. Her signature headstand is not the only thing that leaves audiences in awe.