CulturallyOurs_How to live your best life today

How To Live Your Best Life

12.13.18
CulturallyOurs_How to live your best life today

Simple yet powerful steps to start living your best life.

Have you ever felt like the whole world is getting so caught up in living the perfect life? Thanks in part to social media and the need to document every minute of every day to share with the world, we want to make sure everyone sees that we have the perfect life, the perfect marriage, the perfect job, the perfect kids…so on and so forth.

Sound familiar?

That is why Yulia Denisyuk’s interview was so refreshing. Yulia shared so openly about all of her life’s challenges, twists and turns to end up to her definition of the best life.  “I am living the best life. It is exactly how I imagined I would live”, she said!

If you missed her inspiring interview, do yourself a favor and go listen to it here.

Based on this concept of ‘living your best life’, we wanted to explore some practical ways to help us all get to that state. Remember it isn’t how to live the perfect life but on how to live your best life. Here’s a few steps you can take towards understanding what it personally means to you to live your best life.CulturallyOurs_How to live your best life coffee croissant and a magazine for a quiet morning

1. Figure out what makes you happy

We are talking about true happiness here. Not happiness as it related to money, fame or popularity. Where do you feel most content? What foods give you joy? What colors put a smile on your face? Who would you share your favorite cup of ice cream with? Take some time to journal about them, you could even make a bulleted list of ‘Things that Make Me Happy’.

2. Figure out what you’re doing right now that you don’t like

Now this list might be harder to acknowledge. We all have a list of things we don’t like to do but feel we need to do it because of various reasons. Some of the things on this life might be things that you cannot stop doing. The season and place in life that you are currently in might demand these from you. That’s okay. Keep in mind that you are not going to make dramatic changes to your life quite yet. The goal is to acknowledge the things that don’t bring you joy so you can work on a plan to slowly but surely eliminate those from your life. It might even hurt to look some of these things in the eye. But, if you want to start living your best life, you have got to come to terms with what’s not working.

3. Compare your lists

Take a look at your list of happy things and things that don’t bring you joy. Make a note of how often you do each of the things in each of the lists. If these lists are drastically unbalanced, work out a plan to get your priorities in order. Like we mentioned earlier, some of the things on the second list might be required for the current situation in your life. Thats okay. As long as you have a plan on how to get from being unhappy to being happy, you are making progress in the right direction.

Once you recognize where you’re being held back from living your best life, it is easy to see where you need to make adjustments.

4. Adjust accordingly

One of the easiest ways to start living your best life is to consciously do more of what makes you happy. In order to do that, you’ve got to kick the bad habits. You need to let yourself enjoy the good more often. You need let go of negativity and eliminate the habit of pessimism. Look at your list of things that make you happy. Look at how often you do them. Then, make it a goal to do it more!

5. Maintain a positive mind and positive attitude

One of the key elements to happiness is being positive. Positivity helps better our perspective. Problems also seem to shrink, bringing an increased sense of energy.  Another way to be happy is to laugh and laugh often. Research has shown that laughter can help to lower blood pressure, reduce stress hormones, boost immune function by raising levels of infection-fighting cells, and produce a general sense of wellbeing.

Once you have figured out what makes you happy, doing more of it ensure consistent happiness. You can take it a step further by downloading the Ikigai worksheet to plan out your life’s purpose. Ikigai is the Japanese concept of finding purpose in everything that we do in life – be it work related, play related or life related.

Do you have any other strategies you gravitate towards when life gets you down? Feel free to share with them here and remember, living your best life shouldn’t be a chore. In fact, it is necessary for our mental, emotional and physical well being. Not perfect but best!

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