3 Happiness Habits

Are you looking for ways to build more happiness and fulfillment in your life? As a faith-based life coach, I believe that happiness starts with cultivating habits that start at your core. In this post, I'm excited to share three habits that can help you build more happiness in your life.

Habit #1 - Allowing All of Your Trials

As humans, we are a funny people.  We go to church, and over the pulpit we share about how our trials are blessings, and in fact, that trials are where we learn and grow.  Sounds like they are a good thing, right?

Then we get hit with a trial - big or small - and we freak out internally!   We feel how hard it is, we feel the weight of it, we tighten up and even have anxiety and pain.

And then as if we aren't suffering enough, we add in all of the self judgement.   It might sound something like this:   "How is this happening to me?"   "Where did I go wrong?"   "I should have ______?"   "What will _______ think of me?"

And honestly, the self-judgement pain is sometimes worse than the pain from the original circumstance.

But, let's go back to what we learned in church.   All things are for our good.  Even our trials.

If instead of tightening up and resisting the pain that we are experiencing, we open up and allow ourselves to go through the process of what it has to offer us, it's then that the pain will dissipate and the learning will occur.

And if instead of judging ourselves, we give ourselves lots of grace, we again open ourselves up to more healing, understanding and freedom from our pain.  Grace might sound something like this:  "It's OK that I'm feeling worried",  "It's OK that this is hard", "It's OK that this is not what I had planned". 

When we let go, and trust in God in every trial, big or small, we allow ourselves to go through the trials and not stay stuck in them.   To feel the pain, and not process it, not stay in it forever.

Habit #2 - Build Stronger Inner Belief's About Yourself

How you view yourself can have a significant impact on your happiness. In fact, it's everything.

If you believe that you are not enough, that you can't do it all, or have it all, or do anything right, then you are going to experience lots of inner pain.

But happiness and joy come from knowing we are OK, and not just that we're OK, but that we're even great, amazing, productive, helpful, contributing, growing, learning, and every other positive emotion that's out there.

This is what God wants you to believe about yourself. 

S. Gifford Nielsen in a talk said this:   "Our Heavenly Father wants us to love ourselves - not to become prideful or self-centered, but to see ourselves as He sees us:  we are His cherished children.  When this truth sinks deep into our hearts, our love for God grows."

The problem is, our brains are in a bad habit of thinking thoughts about ourselves that don't serve us.

Each day, if you take a few minutes to find the ways you are winning, the things that you are doing well, it will build up a confidence in you that replaces the self-judgement, fills you with peace and brings you back to God.

Habit #3 - Obsess in Gratitude

Gratitude is a powerful and much underused tool for cultivating happiness.

When we focus on what we have and express thankfulness for the blessings in our lives, we can shift our mindset and invite more joy and contentment in.

I love President Nelson's quote, "“No matter our situation, showing gratitude for our privileges is a fast-acting and long-lasting spiritual prescription.”

Who doesn't want something that is fast-acting and long-lasting?

Sign me up!

Gratitude changes your heart, your perspective, your emotions and is the gateway to your relationship with God!

Whether it be a Gratitude Journal, or an alarm on your phone, a morning ritual, or just a regular practice, add in lots of doses of gratitude and start filling your heart, mind and soul with more light!

In conclusion, you do have control over your own happiness.   It's not something that has been robbed from you.   And taking daily small steps in allowing your trials, building a strong inner belief about yourself and taking more time for gratitude, you can change your spirit to one that is full of light, joy and happiness!

If you're interested in exploring these habits further and working with a faith-based life coach, I'd be honored to support you on your journey.

Together, we can build a stronger, more fulfilling life.