Unlock Time-Tested Secrets To Be Happier At Home

Do you feel like you’re always stressed out and don’t have enough time to relax? If so, you’re not alone. A lot of people find it hard to relax and be happy at home. One of the main reasons for this is that they don’t have any routines in place that help them relax and de-stress. In this article, we will discuss some simple routines that you can adopt to help you be happy at home.

Exercise For 10 Minutes Daily

It’s important to get your body moving even if you don’t feel like it. Exercise releases endorphins, which have mood-boosting properties. A simple way to make sure that you exercise every day is to set a timer for ten minutes and do some form of cardio. This can be anything from running on the spot to doing jumping jacks. You can also do a combination of different exercises. The important thing is to get your heart rate up and break a sweat.

Short Term High-Intensity Exercise Benefits Health

Tight on time? According to a 2018 study at an Australian University, two minutes of exercise at a high intensity in the morning may be just as good for you as 30 minutes of exercise. Plus, moving boosts your serotonin levels and puts you in a happy mood the rest of the day, not to mention you’ll jump-start your metabolism and thus maintain a healthier weight easier.

Make It a Habit

When you wake up in the morning, do a three-minute warm-up plus five minutes of high-intensity movements and a two-minute cooldown. Keep this routine up until it becomes a habit for you. Since it’s just ten minutes, you don’t have to prepare as much as if you were going on a bike ride or a longer run.

Some ideas are jumping jacks, jump roping, pushups, jogging in place, squats, or lunges.

The benefits of working out like this each morning are that you’ll feel more energetic all day long, you’ll be more alert, focus better, and due to all that, be a lot happier.

Make Your Bed Every Morning

Making your bed might seem like a pointless task, but it can actually make a big difference in how you feel throughout the day. When you make your bed, you’re starting your day off with a small victory. It’s a way to tell yourself that you’re in control and that you can accomplish anything you set your mind to.

5 Reasons why you should make your bed every morning:

1. You’ll feel more productive: If you start your day with a small task that you can complete easily, it will give you a sense of accomplishment and set the tone for the rest of your day.
2. You’ll sleep better: Making your bed is a sign that you’re taking care of your space and creating a comfortable environment to sleep in.
3. It can reduce stress: Having a tidy room can help reduce stress and anxiety levels.
4. It can improve your mood: Starting your day with a small victory can help improve your mood and give you a positive outlook for the rest of the day.
5. It only takes a few minutes: You can easily fit making your bed into your morning routine. It doesn’t have to be perfect, just tidy enough to give you a sense of accomplishment.

Take Care Of Yourself

One routine that can help you be happy at home is to establish a daily self-care routine. This can involve taking time for yourself each day to do things that make you feel good. This could include taking a relaxing bath, giving yourself a manicure or pedicure, listening to music, playing with your pet, drawing a picture, knitting a scarf, or cooking a favorite meal.

Say No At Least Once Per Week

As you work on building daily habits that will make you more successful, one of the skills you need to practice and habituate is saying no more. For the next month or so, start saying no to something at least once a week.

The way to choose what to say no to is to check your goals, look at your schedule, and ask yourself what you really want. If an action leads you to reach your goals and fits your schedule, saying yes is fine, but if it does not provide any value to you or does not fit into your schedule right now, say no.

When you do say no, you don’t owe anyone a reason with few exceptions. However, here are some reasons and ways that you can say no more often.

If You Already Know Say No

Sometimes you simply know that you don’t want to do something no matter what. Instead of putting people off or saying yes just to avoid the issue, start saying no right away. For example, if you have a friend involved in an MLM who constantly asks you to come to parties or buy things, and you have but resent it, start saying no and ask them to stop asking you.

Say I’ll Think About It

You don’t have to give people answers right away about anything. This can help you reduce the pressure on yourself to say yes to anything. Start making it a habit always to say, “Let me check my schedule. I’ll get back to you by 3 pm on Friday with my answer.” This way, they can wait patiently, and you can ensure that you want to say yes or no.

Always Check Your Schedule

Even if your first thought is that it’s something you want to do, you must always check your schedule before saying yes. You may be overbooked already, and even if you’re going to say yes, you need to say no. Doing this will ward off burnout. Stretching yourself too thin is bad for you and everyone else that depends on you too.

Offer Alternatives

Sometimes you can’t do what your customer or the person wants, but you can turn your no into a yes in the recipient’s mind. If you know someone who can do the thing being asked of you better, tell them about it. If you can offer some help but not exactly what was asked for, say exactly that to the person.

One thing to remember is that you don’t have to be part of everything in your community. Saying no allows others to step up. Suppose you’re the type that runs your PTA, a small business, and more than two or three community organizations and clubs. You’re probably doing too much. Let others shine and take your time back. Your friends and family and you will thank you.

Keep A Daily Gratitude Journal

One of the very first habits it’s important to incorporate into your daily life if you want to be happy and feel successful is the habit of gratitude. Being grateful is more than looking on the bright side. It’s actually about being realistic about what is good in your life.

To record your gratitude, use whatever method works best for you, whether it’s to email yourself, using a paper diary, or some other method. The important thing is that you acknowledge in a way that can be tracked at least three things you’re grateful for so that you can look back on them and measure how far you’ve come.

Plus, there are many benefits to appreciation outside of a good mindset.

• You’ll Be More Satisfied with Your Life – It’s so easy to focus on things when they go wrong. You missed your alarm clock, you got caught in the rain, you spilled food on your new shirt – all seem like bad things until you realize oversleeping enabled you to cuddle with your spouse longer, the rain cooled you down after lunch, and you only spilled the food because you were laughing with your best friend.
• You’ll Become Less Materialistic – When you focus on the positive, it becomes clear that it’s not things that make you happy or successful – it’s experiences. As you realize that your life becomes so much richer and then, of course, you feel more comfortable and experience your life as successful.
• You’ll Be Less Likely to Suffer from Burnout – If you’re aware of yourself and stay mindful, you can avoid experiencing burnout in the first place. Taking the time to record your gratitude lets you concentrate on the good parts, which can calm you down and let you place your focus where it belongs.
• You’ll Experience Better Physical Health – People who can turn their focus to what’s good in their life are more likely to exercise, eat right, and stay mindful of their health.
• You’ll Sleep Better Every Night – Getting everything out on paper before bed is a great time to focus on gratitude. You’ll fall asleep faster as your good mood will result in reduced anxiety.
• You’ll Feel Less Fatigue – When you sleep better at night due to less anxiety, you’re naturally going to feel more well-rested and sharp during the day.
• You’ll Be More Patient – Not being on edge due to anxiety and bad thoughts will also increase your patients with others and yourself too. After all, there is often something good you can take from almost everything, eventually.
• You’ll Have Better and More Solid Relationships – People like being around those who are more positive than they do people who are always on edge and anxious. If you really want to build strong relationships, focus on the positive more.

As you can see, being grateful carries many benefits that will make your entire life better. No one is asking you to be thankful for a bad situation, especially something beyond your control, but you need to look at what is working in your life, analyze why that is working, and then do more of that. The best way to do that is to look for things to be grateful for each and every day.

Get Rid Of Clutter

The daily habit of getting rid of things you’re not going to use will help you cut down on clutter, ensure you think twice before buying something new, and make you feel light and free. Holding on to old stuff just because you hate to get rid of it is just clogging up your home with dust magnets, making your office look cluttered, and it might even be causing brain fog which cuts down on your productivity.

It really doesn’t matter what any guru or so-called expert says, if your 1000 book collection brings you joy, even though you have to dust it, and you rarely read the books again – it’s not wrong to keep them. However, don’t let an illogical attachment to stuff keep you trapped in an environment that is not conducive to reaching the goals you’ve set for yourself.

So, if you read this title and thought, “Not another lecture on minimalism,” don’t worry, it’s not. In many ways, the ability to even call oneself a minimalist is pretty privileged to start with, and minimizing is really in the eye of the beholder. This is more about keeping your spaces less cluttered and doing it by simply making it a habit to clean up right away. Practice throwing away, giving away, and ending clutter on a schedule to help turn it into a habit.

• Set Up a System – Everyone has paperwork and mail coming in. The best way to handle this is to set up a system. Try only to touch the paperwork once. Get the mail, open it by the trash and organize each piece. Every year when you do taxes, toss out the tax year that no longer needs to be saved per your accountant’s advice.
• Trash, Process, or File – If you got a medical bill you need to pay, process it, and file it. If you got a letter from your congressperson, you could throw it away; if you got a letter from the IRS and there is no need to do something, file it. The idea is when you do what needs to be done immediately, you have less clutter around.
• Get Rid of Those Clothes – If you have clothing you’ve not worn for a season, socks with holes, and other things you never use, don’t save them. All they are doing is attracting dust and taking up space. Make this easy by keeping a donate bag in your closet that you fill over time and donate when full.
• Throw Away Old Electronics – You may need to find a safe way to dispose of these through your city offices, but there is no reason to keep old electronics forever collecting dust and taking up space. Instead, find a place to donate them and make it a habit to do so yearly.

Keeping these things causes dust and clutter in your home or office, but studies show that physical clutter in your space causes anxiety and even depression. People who keep their environment less cluttered tend to get more done and report feeling more successful. You don’t have to be perfect but make it a habit to toss things you’re not using every single day.