8 tips to reduce stress and enjoy life more.

2300 years ago Aristotle said that more than anything Men and Women seek happiness. To this day happiness and a relaxed life are something many people want, yet few achieve.

We are in a day and age where we have a lot of things at our fingertips that we only dreamed of less than 100 years ago. The instant connection to anyone, anytime, anywhere, the ease of getting all our needs by the click of a button, and medical improvement that has increased our life span by many years. With all of this present, we still are not happy!

From that, we conclude that happiness is not about what we have, but instead, it is about how we experience things in our minds, what we call “Subjective Experience”.

So what can we do to improve our subjective experience, become happier, reduce stress, and enjoy life more?

Here are 8 tips that you can apply:

1. Develop an empowering morning ritual. It could start simply by doing your bed in the morning. As meaningless and trivial as this might seem, it will be an accomplishment first thing in the morning. As you can find in “Make Your Bed by William H. McRaven”, he shares that this will emphasize the idea that small things matter in life, and if at the end of the day you come home and had a bad day you will come home to a bed that is made, a  bed that you made, and a made bed gives you the encouragement that tomorrow will be better. It’s also on youtube in his video speech (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxBQLFLei70).
2. Turn off your data bundle when you go to sleep. This will allow you to wake up in the morning, and take your time in starting off the day the way you want. Social Media and all the other notifications can wait.
3. Write down 3 things that would make your day great as soon as you are out of bed. That will allow you to have a focus on what will make the day matter. The Reticular Activating System part of your brain searches for what is similar to what you are focusing on, and that will allow you to notice more opportunities to make what would make your day great happen.
4. Meditate for 10 minutes, there are many applications that can allow you to do that easily. For example, Headspace has a 10-day meditation program that will guide you to clear your thoughts and start off the day in a more pleasant way.
5. Discover what gets the best out of those around you, and spend time with them at their most flowing and productive moment. A lot has been said that you are the average of the five people you spend your most time with. Although that may be true, you can still spend time with anyone and make the best out of it when you focus on the value they add to your life by who they are.
6. At the end of each day, write down three things that were good about your day, and three things that could have made it better. This reinforces your unconscious mind to focus on how to problem solve while you sleep and help you to find more solutions while you are sleeping and allowing your unconscious mind for you, just like when you were playing that game and was stuck on a level, then suddenly you woke up next morning and solved it easily. Yes Candy Crush fans, I am talking to you!
7. Use the word “GOOD” after every piece of news you receive. This is not about positive thinking, this about thinking about outcomes. To elaborate if you were told that you are not getting the promotion you were waiting for, and your reply “GOOD, now I can focus/do/work on X/Y/Z.” This reinforces your mind to be outcome-oriented and moves you forward.
8. Any chance you get to LAUGH, do it! Whether it is watching something funny, spending time with kids, or just getting together with friends who lift your mood. After all, laughter is the medicine of the soul.

A lot of things won’t make sense in life, but what’s life without a little nonsense anyway. Do what you can, while you can.