How to Create Sustainable Happiness

culled from:wikihow.com

Steps

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Create your happy list. Take 10 minutes to write down all the things that make you happy, including people, places, nature, pets, accomplishments, work, physical activity, etc. Just write freely without censoring yourself.

• Once you are finished, take a look at your list and ask yourself if you are embracing these aspects of your life that make your heart sing. Perhaps there is something that you enjoy that you could do more often. Perhaps there is a relationship that is important to you that you have been neglecting.
• Take another look at your list and ask yourself if there is anything on the list that makes you happy but is not contributing to your well-being or is potentially harmful to other people or the environment. Is there anything on your list that you might want to change so that you are contributing to sustainable happiness? For example, think about your morning coffee/tea. If it is fair trade coffee then you know that workers were paid fairly and the coffee was grown with care for the environment? Or perhaps you have a habit that isn't healthy for you.

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   Chart your sustainable happiness footprint for a week. Use the headings in the sample chart above to track your activities. For each activity, fill in how it made you feel, its potential impact on you, on other people, and the natural environment. The chart helps you to identify opportunities in your daily life where you can make a shift towards sustainable happiness.
   • Some people discover that they could help themselves and the environment by eating less junk food (better for their health and less waste), or that by walking for short trips they could bring more physical activity into their life and reduce the harm from car travel. Try to find at least one thing that you could shift to create more sustainable happiness for yourself and others.
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   Practice appreciation. Research from positive psychology has shown that practicing gratitude and expressing appreciation is associated with positive emotions. You can start by waking up each day and reflecting for a few moments about what you appreciate (and possibly take for granted - such as the fact that you are alive with a new day ahead of you!). Pay attention to the pleasures you experience through your senses. Sometimes if we are multi-tasking, we can be so task oriented that we lose sight of life's simple pleasures.
   • Keeping a gratitude journal works for some people or writing a gratitude letter to someone as well. Increasing your appreciation of what you cherish also helps you to resist the pervasive advertising messages that aim to convince you that you don't have enough - that you will be happier if you just buy a certain product.
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   Increase your happiness media literacy. Advertising agencies have picked up on the "happiness buzz" and are marketing products around happiness. Notice for example, Coca Cola's 'happiness truck', happy shampoos, happy pet food, Happy Meals, and Tim Horton's "happy latte". Once you start to look for it, you'll notice that happiness is being associated with material consumption. Happiness research shows us that enduring life satisfaction comes from relationships, feeling connected to our community, and having a sense of purpose. We also know that our consumer society's are using more resources than the planet can sustain. This means that over consumption is neither the path to happiness nor sustainability.
   • You can take more steps towards sustainable happiness by becoming a mindful consumer. One way to notice if the marketing strategies are working on you is to ask yourself it you are feeling that you "need" something that is not truly essential to your genuine happiness and well-being.
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   Compare happiness with sustainable happiness. There is strong research evidence that shows that happiness is associated with health and well-being. There is also a pop-culture about happiness that is sometimes marketing quick fixes for making you happy. You'll also see lists of happy countries, happy cities, and so on. You may notice that these views of happiness don't portray the big picture of how our happiness is connected to other people and the planet.
   • But our happiness doesn't exist in isolation. Every day, we are choice makers who can enhance sustainable happiness in the world by being aware of how our choices affect ourselves, other people and the environment - and then making choices that are beneficial.
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   Make a sustainable happiness commitment. Commit to at least one thing that you could shift in your life that will enhance your well-being, the well-being of other people, or of the natural environment. Once this new commitment has become part of your life you may want to make another one! And another one! Creating a legacy of sustainable happiness!