A Simple Hack to Make Yourself Happier

Much of our feelings are controlled by subconscious thoughts, as much as they are controlled by what is happening around us. When something happens, our minds process it in a fraction of a second, and then emotion arises from our minds.

According to Omar Itani,

Every thought we experience creates a chemical reaction in the brain which then triggers an emotion. As we engage with this thought, it creates a new circuit that sends a signal to the body and we react a certain way. The more we repeat this pattern, the more it seeps into our mind and becomes a habit.

Our thoughts create our reality. And the more we have the same thoughts, or same type of thoughts over and over, the more our experience of reality becomes a certain way that matches our thoughts.

If we want to change our emotions, we have to change our thoughts.

But, how do we do that?

There are many ways to change our thought patterns, if we want to break out of the subconscious habits that we have formed in the past by thinking a certain way. We may want to change our behavior, or we may want to change how we feel, or how we react to circumstances. When we do this, it changes our brains and how we think.

According to Forbes,

We can reprogram our brains’ automatic response, and all it requires (this is a simple thing...but not an easy one) is a conscious effort to build new pathways.

If you want to be happier, there are a lot of different ways that you can work with your thinking patterns to work on being happier. This includes working with your limiting beliefs to create new, healthier beliefs.

You can do this using affirmations that are the opposite of your limiting beliefs. So, every time you find yourself thinking something negative throughout the day, like, "I am so stupid." or "I am always late." You can reframe those into positive affirmations like, "I am smart" or "I am always on time."

Then, these new positive thoughts will move to a subconscious level of our minds the more we repeat them so that they will eventually replace the negative beliefs that we currently hold.

So, what is the new hack that I learned?

Well recently, I was in a training where the trainer was talking about how you can change your emotions using your actions. He told us to stand up, throw our arms up in the air, and shout "yes, yes, yes" over and over again. Then, he asked us to try to feel depressed. It is almost impossible to do. When you jump up and shout "yes" it automatically puts you into a happier mood.

So, along those lines, I decided that instead of just saying my affirmations into the mirror every day, I was going to throw my hands up in the air, jump up and down, and scream them quite loudly.

When I do this, it makes me feel better, literally right away.

It sounds silly and simple, and actually it is. But it also works if you need a quick pick-me-up sometime throughout the day!

According to The Learning Architect,

It takes about 28 days to embed a new habit behaviour so manage your expectation and don’t expect instant results. Repetition is the way to gradually entrench your habits and the 30-day challenge is a great challenge to set yourself to begin rewiring those neural pathways.

Keep this in mind as you are working on making happiness a habit for yourself. You may see results in the moment when you are consciously aware of your thoughts, and then still go back to negative thinking later in the day.

This means, you need to repeat the affirmations over and over throughout the day, every time you find yourself thinking negatively. If you are able to do this consistently for 28 days, then thinking positively will become a new habit for you, and you will go to a negative place in your thinking much less often.