Hey Everyone!

Hope you’re all doing well and Happy New Year!

Many people use this time of the year to reflect on their current life situation and they often look towards what they can do to improve their lives.

Here are four tips that can hopefully make 2019 a happy and healthy year for you:

Laugh a Little:

Without a doubt, for many people life is filled with stress and anxiety. However, laughter has powerful health benefits. Laughter enables our brain to produce mood boosting endorphins and it can stimulate blood circulation to our hearts, lungs, and muscles. In addition to all of the above benefits laughter can help improve memory and lower stress.

Perhaps one way to add more laughter to our lives is to change our perspective and view the more “embarrassing” moments of our lives as comical moments worthy of laughter rather than anguish.

For example, a few summers ago I was attending my younger brothers’ elementary school graduation and I was wearing a beautiful summer dress and as I was walking out of the building many people were staring at me and I thought it was because the dress was so pretty. However, I later discovered that people were likely staring because my dress had a huge tear in the middle and my belly was unintentionally showing!

Immediately afterwards I was extremely horrified and embarrassed but nowadays I laugh every time I remember that incident.

Alternatively, my favorite way to get a good laugh is to spend 20 minutes or so a day watching my favorite comedy sitcom.

View the Cup as Half Full:

With all that is going on in our modern world it is easy to become pessimistic and have a more negative outlook on life. However, time after time, research has shown that people that are the more happy and healthy, view the world from an optimistic perspective. For example, research shows that adults who have a positive attitude toward aging live longer than those with a more negative outlook.

I know that becoming more optimistic is much easier said than done. However, as with any other skill practice makes perfect. The next time something doesn’t go as planned or if something bad happens try to change your perspective and try to view the situation from a more positive angle.

Embrace the Small Moments of Joy:

Many people, myself included, only focus on the larger more obvious moments of joy in our lives. Such epic moments of joy may include weddings, graduations, births, ceremonies, major holidays etc. As much as we should be looking forward to these larger moments of joy, the reality is that such moments are often few and limited and they represent only a small proportion of our lives. Such smaller moments of joy may include a smile, a sweet or loving text message, a hug from a loved one, eating a favorite meal or dessert, wearing comfy clothes and relaxing after a long day, etc.

In order to add more joy into our own lives we should recognize and embrace these small moments of joy as well as the more epic moments.

Learn Without Much Effort:

Throughout the day many of us spend time doing tasks that don’t require much thinking. Such tasks include driving, riding the bus or train, bathing, putting on makeup, and maybe even cooking or preparing a meal.

A very simple way to gain some knowledge without much effort is to listen to a podcast or watch a TEDTalk while doing these other tasks. Listening to a podcast or TED Talk can be a fun and easy way to learn a little bit each day.

I hope that you find these tips to be helpful and I wish you all a happy and healthy 2019!

With Love,

Yasmin