How to Feel Happy Fast

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Do you ever feel that happiness is out of reach or that something in your life must change first before you can feel happy? However, you can, almost effortlessly, do something that creates a shift in your feelings. Sometimes, just a little thing can take you from feeling bad to feeling happy. Here’s one way to feel happy fast.

Do you ever feel that happiness is out of reach or that something in your life must change first before you can feel happy? However, you can, almost effortlessly, do something that creates a shift in your feelings. Sometimes, just a little thing can take you from feeling bad to feeling happy. Here’s one way to feel happy fast.

How to Feel Happy Fast

 

We can’t always chase happiness, tackle it, and make it happen. But I’m a firm believer that we can shift how we feel. On Pinterest, I have a board called, Feel Better Now. I love finding posts on ways that we can immediately shift our feelings into a better place.

Often, we get stuck thinking that something in our life has to change before we can feel better. We think some circumstance in our life must change before we can actually feel good.

This isn’t true.

At all.

For a long time, I’ve been aware that we have the ability to shift our feelings—and sometimes, we can do that quite fast.

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3 Reasons It’s Important to Feel Good

This is important to for several reasons. The most important reason is that feeling good—feels good! It is perfectly acceptable to choose to feel good because you want to feel good.

The other reason is that feeling good attracts more good into our lives. When we feel good, we smile more, we act with more energy, and we connect better with others. We literally attract more good into our lives.

My final reason, I think it’s important to feel good, is that I believe that when we feel happy, then we bless the world. Our improved feelings make our world a better place.

My Happiness Mission

Of course, at times we aren’t going to feel all that great. That’s life too. But if you want to shift out of feeling bad, even for a little while, then give this a try.

Recently, I was in a really unhappy place (I wrote here about wanting to skip Christmas) and I came up with this idea. My original intention was to create an experiment called My Happiness Mission and see how it went for 21 days. Instead, just writing up my plan, shifted my feelings from depressed and anxious, into something resembling happiness.

And it stuck. I got my mojo back. I got my creativity and motivation back. I got myself out of that dark place I was in.

Not only did I improve my feelings but I was better able to support and love the people in my life who were also going through some rough times. When I was able to get out of my head about how miserable I was—I was a better person, not just for myself but for those around me.

Now that’s a win!

So, it is definitely a worthy goal to seek out ways to feel better and feel happier.

What I Wrote a Few Weeks Ago

What follows is EXACTLY what I wrote a few weeks ago as I sought a way to feel better, to feel some happiness. I expected it to take about 3 weeks for me to get to my happy place. Instead it took about 20 minutes to get there and I have felt better ever since.

So read along, and perhaps give this idea a try. This is the perfect time of year to get to a happy place.

Sometime Early in December…

November ended, for me, on a really dark note. I was anxious, worried, and stuck in my head. From the time I woke up until the time I went to bed, I was spinning depressing and scary stories in my head.

As December 2 dawned, I knew that I just couldn’t go on like this. I wasn’t sure what to do. I got up, had coffee, and began to journal as usual. All my scary thoughts were there. But 2/3 of the way through, I began to sense something important.

We don’t have to make big contributions or even do great things to be important in other people’s lives. We are important, simply by the space we hold. Our lives matter. We matter.

I felt very comforted by knowing this. Then I decided to take it a step further. What if, instead of just being (which is perfectly fine!) I sought happiness. Just writing this the first time, made me feel a little sick. Is it even okay to seek happiness?

And if it’s okay, can I even find things that make me happy???

My Original Idea

I decided to do a 21-day happiness mission. Each day, I would do one thing on my list. At first, I thought I would put each thing in a bowl and pull one out each day. In the end, I decided to make my list and then schedule one thing for each day. (I like a plan!)

Determining my happy things, was a challenge. And if you do nothing else from this, do this. At the very least, spend some time, thinking about what actually makes you happy, and that you can accomplish without depending on other people or money. (I live alone. I worry about money.)

That’s the rub! Most of the things I would normally associate with being happy, involve other people and money. I’m not saying you can’t include other people or spend money, but part of this experiment was to find ways to stimulate happiness without depending too much on either of those things.

For my own mission, I came up with 21 days of experiences that I either know create a feeling of happiness or that I suspect will create a feeling of happiness.

I decided that I could spend money but I did decide that I would make my missions solo.

My 21-day Happiness Mission

  1. Spend an hour in a bookstore browsing with the intent to buy something inspiring
  1. Take a walk on my favorite walking trail in Houston. (Buffalo Bayou) Or any other beautiful trail in Houston.
  1. Spend time with my children or grandchildren.
  1. Listen to great music live.
  1. Set off on a road trip.
  1. Make a collage
  1. Sitting outside on a beautiful evening with a fire and wine.
  1. Go to museum.
  1. Have coffee outside, preferably overlooking a beach.
  1. Go to City Centre and walk around and have coffee and a treat at Fellini’s.
  1. Make a special dinner to share with friends.
  1. Go to British store and get some candy.
  1. Discover a new book and spend a weekend reading it.
  1. Catch up with a good friend over lunch, coffee, dinner, or drinks.
  1. Reflexology (Never done it but it sounds interesting)
  1. Go to Bayou Bend (see if Jo can go)
  1. French Farm sale (today)
  1. Holistic chiropractor.
  1. Something else holistic (look in that magazine that guy gave you if you can find it. Lol)
  1. Dance to good music.

What I love about this list is that it made me focus on what kinds of things MAKE me happy and not what kinds of things SHOULD make me happy. My happy things were not someone else’s list nor were they what popular media says should make me happy.

(Looking back at this list, I do notice that some things did cost money. But, I ended up feeling good without spending much money.)

What Actually Happened

These were all happy-inducing ideas for me. Just thinking about them made me feel happy. I felt happier after making the list BEFORE I even did one thing. Just making this list, changed how I felt. I felt happy. I felt better.

Three months later, I still haven’t slipped back to that dark place.

I can confidently say, that shifting your thoughts to a happier place is not selfish nor is it taking away from anyone else. In fact, it does the opposite. By improving your feelings, you are not only better able to take care of yourself, you are more equipped to handle whatever life throws at you.

That being said, it’s okay if you want to do this just to feel better yourself. I think you are worth it!

If you have ways that shift you to a better feeling place, please share in the comments. I’d love to know what you are doing!

Keep showing up my friends!

Feel free to check me out on my Facebook page. I’ve been having fun making live videos lately.

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Sara

Sara

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12 Comments

  1. […] How to Feel Happy Fast […]

  2. Kim on December 31, 2016 at 9:17 am

    I loved reading this post and will come back to it when I sit down to dig into my goals for the new year. I want to find more joy and this is so inspiring! And I need to talk a walk around Buffalo Bayou too!

    • Sara on December 31, 2016 at 9:41 am

      Hi Kim–thanks for stopping by! It’s always nice to meet another Houston blogger. I moved further (way further) west on the Bayou. So, I still technically walk along it. But love the park closer to downtown and miss it!

  3. jehava on December 30, 2016 at 8:40 pm

    I love this so much!

  4. Cork and Fork Aficionado on December 30, 2016 at 8:59 pm

    This is a very uplifting and inspiring post! I think writing things down really helps. There are so many things that can sway your mood, having something planned out for each day that would make you happy is definitely a great way to help yourself stay positive!

  5. Keriann Worley on December 30, 2016 at 2:42 pm

    When you write it down, you own it! Often times you get in a rut and only you can get yourself out. Great post!

  6. Rochelle on December 30, 2016 at 11:04 am

    This is all excellent advice. I love the tips you give here. Have a wonderful New Year! Xo, Rochelle

    http://www.prettyyellowthings.com

    • Sara on December 30, 2016 at 12:23 pm

      Thanks Rochelle. Happy New Year to you too!

  7. candy on December 30, 2016 at 8:55 am

    Everyday I tell myself 10 things I am grateful for. Maybe I should start writing them down. Helps me keep happy.

  8. Helen Giddy on December 30, 2016 at 8:49 am

    I’ve just written my goals for the new year and now you’ve inspired me to include a happiness list. Thanks for the uplifting post. ?

    • Sara on December 30, 2016 at 12:29 pm

      Too often, we just think about getting stuff done and forget to plan things that actually make us happy. Thanks for reading and happy new year!

  9. michelle on December 30, 2016 at 11:51 am

    Great post. It’s so important to take care of yourself. Little things add up and they matter…

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Hi, I'm Sara Garska and I'm so happy you're here! Big changes can happen with a shift in thinking. Over time, you transform your life into the one you always dreamed of having. As a certified life and weight loss coach, I can help you create a life you love. Click here to schedule a free 50-minute coaching session.