How To Be Happy

1)   Exercise

2)   Sleep more—you’ll be less sensitive to negative emotions

3)   Move closer to work

4)   Spend time with friends and family

5)   Go outside

6)   Help others—100 hours a year is the magic number

7)   Practice smiling

8)   Plan a trip, but don’t take one

9)   Meditate

10)                   Practice gratitude

Yesterday, Mr. Delacruz gave us a motivational Monday about how to be happy. He read us an article that gave 10 scientific ways to be happier. Out of the ten, there are a few that I can work on, and hopefully I will be happier day to day! One is smile more often. It seems silly to me, but I think there is some merit in it. Although, we might not be happy at the time we smile, the action might compel us to be happy because of the force of habit that usually comes with a smile. When we are happy, our muscles contour our mouth in an upward half moon—also known as a smile. This force of habit and association with positivity must be why simply smiling makes us happier—it dips into our association with smiles and happy times.

            Another thing I really need to work on is sleep! The amount of sleep I get per night is a direct result of my productivity throughout the day. If I do not procrastinate as much throughout my day, I would most likely be able to get to bed at an earlier time. I have a lot to do, but I also spend a large portion of time on social media and other distracting outlets. Hopefully getting more sleep will increase my mood.

            I am presently in the middle of attempting to go skiing this weekend, which coincides with number eight on the list. Due to some of my friends, who are mentally incapacitated at planning things, I will probably ending up staying at home on Saturday. While I know I will not end up frolicking in the snow this weekend, it is still nice to think about going. Daydreaming about skiing is a nice escape. It’s amazing how simply thinking about a trip can bring so much happiness. It is like taking a trip, yet without actually escaping. Let’s just hope this skiing adventure actually comes to fruition!
           In this specific post, I concentrated my efforts on sentence variety. I worked on peppering my paragraphs with numerous sentence varieties. I good example to look at is the final paragraph. I mainly use simple and complex sentences. I began with multiple complex sentences, along with some appositives. Because some of the sentences were longer, I decided to add some shorter sentences, hence the multiple simple sentences. I focused on the variety because it makes my writing more fluid.