By Elizabeth Herman | Posted: May 08, 2020
Does an ailment in your body distract you and make it harder to concentrate? Sometimes, dealing with health issues can be overwhelming to your mind as well, especially if you haven’t decided to actively take measures to make yourself happy yet.
For those with physical maladies and those without them, happiness can determine your quality of life. One research study showed that healthy people underestimated the happiness of sick people, and sick people overestimated the happiness levels of their healthy counterparts.
In either group, a conscious effort to make yourself happy during every moment of the day can lead to better health outcomes. Multiple strategies for gaining contentment and joy can give you access to improvements in health, in addition to causing your productivity and relationships to improve as well.
The 2019 World Happiness Report showed that Americans ranked number 19 among other nations in terms of widespread happiness from 2016 to 2018, and that was the lowest score the U.S. has ever gotten. To improve this country’s happiness quotient, click the image below and start learning how to be happy like a pro.
Happiness strategies in sickness and in health
Getting adequate rest: Making sure that you rest enough is crucial to both happiness and health. With about 8 hours of sleep each night, human beings feel much more empowered to direct the course of the day, week, month, and year. In addition, you need to take relaxation breaks for deep breathing regularly during the day, to make sure you have the energy reserves to handle your usual stress, particularly the stress that comes with illnesses.
Being with nature: The natural world provides us with constant company to help ward off loneliness and boredom. If you’re homebound for whatever reason, whether it be illness or a job that you do from home, you can look to the flora and fauna for friendship when you find yourself alone for any extended periods of time. By learning to be alone but not lonely, studies show you’re likely to live longer and avoid major health consequences such as heart ailments, dementia, depression, or anxiety.
Maintaining good relationships: When you express gratitude and help others, you fight loneliness and improve relationships even more effectively. Rather than thinking only about your own health challenges, reach out. At the same time, be careful not to let someone’s negativity drag you down. Exchange notes on your progress with someone who has their own health issues, and offer them a helping hand. By serving others, you gain a sense of competence, feel needed, and worry less. You create moments of happiness and self-worth one at a time until they accumulate into overall happiness.
Letting go of problems: Knowing that you can’t control everything in life, let go of some problems and allow a greater force in the universe to take care of them. If the issues don’t resolve due to your efforts or by themselves, offer them to a higher power and see what happens to them. This will relieve you of many burdens that detract from your healing process.
Meditating regularly: A habit of meditation twice daily can keep reminding you to relax and bring your mind back into a positive, refreshed state. It only takes a few minutes a day to release your troubles and stop trying to get well or solve all of your life’s difficulties in one overwhelming stroke, which can often frustrate you. Repeating this practice continuously will help you accumulate energy instead of stress. In this way, you can tackle challenges with greater ease and overcome obstacles more readily.
Nurturing creativity: You can keep a box of watercolor paints, brushes, colored pencils, and oil pastel crayons in your home, to use whenever you want to create art. You can also keep a weaving loom, knitting needle, quilting frame, or crochet hook handy for fabric art projects. Music and dance also help. These are easy ways to activate the right side of your brain, and achieve a balance with the logical left side, resulting in higher levels of productivity, efficiency, clarity of thought, and relaxation.
Eating pure food: Meals that contain fresh fruits and vegetables and whole grains, nuts and seeds help to enliven my physical and mental functioning. You can notice a big difference just by taking processed food out of your eating plans. It isn’t hard to learn to feed yourself more healthily and lightly, but making this change can pay off in much better attitudes about life and improved health outcomes.
Exercising your body: Accepting yourself and doing what you love gets easier when you exercise your body daily. Simple stretches and yoga postures can provide an excellent starting point as you gradually begin to use your body vigorously. Walking outside daily helps digestion and relieves stress. You start to get in touch with what you want when you have a regular habit of making your blood circulate and your muscles ready to move. In addition, when the time to sleep comes around, your exertion will help you snooze soundly as advised in the first item in this list.
Links between happiness and health are many. Staying in the present moment and establishing habits, like the ones described in Beyond Breath - A FREE Breath & Meditation Online Session With a Live Instructor, can support your energy levels and liveliness. You can find happiness despite health issues and get closer to solving those issues as well. All the best on your journey to happiness and health.
Elizabeth Herman writes, offers writing support to clients, teaches, and volunteers for a better world. She has a PhD in Rhetoric, Composition and Literature. Find her on Facebook or Twitter.
