“How to Be Happy” :) By: Justine C

“In seeking happiness for others, you must find it yourself.” -Unknown
According to Webster’s dictionary, the true meaning of the word “Happy” is fortunate. I feel as
if happiness cannot be defined in terms of tangibility and you don’t have to be fortunate to be
happy. For example, those without much and barely making ends meet can be happy without
having all the money and nice things in the world. Growing up, we might find it harder and
harder to find happiness in the little things but we must remind ourselves that happiness means
something different to everybody and only we have the ability to control how we feel, these are
just a couple of examples of how you can help guide yourself to the basics of happiness:
Materials:
-Good heart
-Positive mindset
-Stability
-Independence
-Open mindset
-Ability to Learn from your mistakes
Step 1: Your surroundings and Positive Mindset
The process of happiness begins with your surroundings, the more positive you surround
yourself affects how positive you are with others and the more negative you are
surrounded with affects your negativity among others, in this case it’s best to try turning
your negativity to positivity. Basically if you always have a mindset of “today’s going to
be a bad day,” you will obviously have a bad day. Even if it is a bad day, try telling
yourself “today was a bad day but how can I make it better?” An Open Mindset is
another helpful tool to happiness, being comfortable with stepping out of your comfort
zone to help yourself grow as an individual can teach you that there’s so much in the
world that you don’t yet know about but would love to learn.
Step 2: Doing something good for others
“It is literally true that you can succeed best and quickest by helping others to succeed.”
-Napolean Hill, A great way to make you feel better about yourself is to help others in
anyway possible, this can go many ways from simply keeping your community clean to
giving a homeless man a dollar and a smile. Small acts of kindness will help teach others
to do good for one another and possibly create a chain reaction of helpfulness.
Step 3: Finding something you enjoy doing
If you feel unhappy with how your life is going, try finding something you’re interested
in and surround yourselves with others that may be interested in similar hobbies or
activities. Finding something you enjoy doing helps you feel better about yourself and
look forward to becoming a better you.
Step 4: Stability
A good balance between everything complicated and stressful in your life is a huge key
to happiness. If you become stressed over one thing, always remember to stay positive
and take time for yourself. This can start from simply taking a short nap to maybe even a
small walk around your neighborhood to help clear your mind of this hard stress. Always
remember stress is apart of growing and one day all of your hard work will pay off.
Step 5: Be your own Happiness
You must learn to be your own happiness and that it’s almost impossible to find
happiness through other people. Those who you think you can’t live without are all
temporary and should teach you need to learn to grow on your own not only mentally but
also physically. As I said before, little things like money, the nicest shoes or even biggest
house might make you temporarily happy but in the long run, these kind of things won’t
help you find inner happiness.
These couple of steps aren’t the only ways to become “happy.” Each of us are our own
ambassadors of our own happiness, no one person can tell you how or what makes you happy it
is situational for everybody.