Remember when you were just a child without a care in the world?

You lived without fear and the world revolved around your imagination with no limitations at all.

As we grew up, we lost that inner child; that pure innocent happiness. We started to take on more responsibility. We experienced loss and sadness, grief and worry. And we cope by putting on a mask and pretending to be happy, most of the time.

“Adulting” is hard but it’s rewarding when we get it right. As we go and grow through life, we learn that happiness is a discovery and it’s up to us to make it our own.

Here are 11 tips to experience more happiness in your life:

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11 Things To Stop Doing To Live A Happier Life

1) Stop giving your time to people who don’t deserve it

There’s a big difference between someone who talks to you in their free time and someone who frees their time to talk to you. Know the difference.

Some relationships in your life may be toxic. They may be draining you of your precious energy and you have to be mindful of that and protect it.

A lot of the time, these relationships may be people in your life that are very close to you, family members or good friends you’ve had for a long time but that doesn’t mean that they always deserve your time.

If you find yourself feeling drained of energy when you’re around them, then maybe you need to start spending less time with them and give that energy back to yourself.

2) Stop saying “Yes” to things you don’t want to do

Far too many of us are putting ourselves in these situations where we’re saying “yes” to things we don’t really want to do. It could be a dinner event, a night out with some friends or even a work gathering.

We’ve been accustomed to attending these things because we feel like we have to but in reality, you really don’t. You always have a choice.

If people don’t respect the fact that you don’t want to go or they’re pressuring you to go then it’s not a genuine relationship and you probably don’t want those people in your life anyway.

Your time here is limited so stop wasting it doing things that you don’t want to do. Put yourself first and you own needs as a top priority.

Ask yourself, “if today was my last day here on Earth, is this what I want to be doing?”

3) Stop overthinking

Someone wise once said, “worrying is a misuse of your imagination”. Most of the things we worry about never actually happen anyway. Instead, focus on what you can do in the present moment.

It’s easy to be haunted by the words “what if” and we can easily get stuck in our thoughts. Life is much more wonderful when you get out of your head and start living it.

4) Stop comparing

When we’re comparing things in life, it steals our happiness. It immediately changes any positive state we’re in into a negative one.

Ladies are really good at this, when we’re comparing our body to other women who are more fit than us from pictures we see on social media. Or we see videos of things that other people are doing like a romantic dinner date or travelling the world.

We then compare that to our lives and how it’s not like those videos. This immediately makes us feel less than we’re worth and that lack can cause sadness inside of us.

Comparing takes energy and time away from things you could be working on instead. Use a journal to make a list of all the things that make you happy and all the things you’re grateful for and put it up as a daily reminder.

5) Stop gossiping

“What Sally says about Suzy, says less about Suzy and more about Sally”.

The moment you open your mouth, you tell the world who you are.

When we gossip about other people, it’s actually a reflection of ourselves. We’re subconsciously telling other people our insecurities, jealously and envy.

Instead, focus on the positive things you can say about everyone and if you don’t have anything nice to say about them, then don’t share.

If you find yourself stuck in a gossiping conversation unintentionally, then either choose to walk away from that conversation or stand up for the person they’re talking about.

6) Stop putting yourself last

Your happiness is always what’s most important. You can’t share what you don’t have and you can’t pour from an empty cup.

When you put yourself first and take care of your own priorities, then you can have the energy to give to others. Before you can love anyone else, you must first learn to love yourself.

You can act selflessly for a period time but if your own needs aren’t being taken care of, sooner or later, you will experience burn out.

7) Stop eating crappy food

Your mood is directly impacted by what you eat. Most of the serotonin your body produces comes from your gut.

Feed yourself the right nutrition. Eat whole foods and non-processed foods and choose organic whenever possible.

Nature designed food to give us energy, if you experience the so called “food coma” then basically the food you ate was poison; it didn’t do it’s job of supplying you with the energy you need to perform your daily tasks.

Every food item you put inside your body is a sending it a signal, make sure you send it positive and healthy ones.

8) Stop watching the news

Especially first thing in the morning and last thing before bed. I’m not saying don’t be informed but the news is curated in a way to produce fear in most cases with over dramatization causing stress and worry.

Your mind is most impressionable right when you wake up and right before you go to bed, fill those times with reading, meditation and gratitude exercises instead.

Above all else, embrace your flaws
JH hard

9) Stop listening to other people’s opinion

And trust your own intuition. Nobody knows you better than yourself. Deep down you already have the answer.

No matter what you do in life, people on the outside will always have an opinion.

You cannot control how other people react or respond. They also cannot truly understand how you feel deep inside, they will never be able to truly feel what you feel because everyone’s experience is unique.

So trust yourself, give yourself more credit for the person you have become because in the end, you’ve come this far because of you and only you.

10) Stop living in the past

History repeats itself if you don’t learn from your mistakes. Reflect on your past but don’t stay there. If you want your future to be different, you must stop reliving old memories.

Happy memories can be bittersweet because in our minds, we can go back and relive those happy times but if we’re not careful, we can stay there and lose sight of what’s going on in the present moment.

Focus on happier memories you can make in the future and make a plan to manifest them into reality.