What if I told you that there was a way to increase your overall happiness tremendously, without even changing your external factors whatsoever?

What if I said there is a power in you (one that you haven’t yet unlocked) that makes you able to live and to see life like no one else does?

You’d probably want it, wouldn’t you? Well, here it is:

A few days ago, on a sunny, beautiful day, I was walking towards my home, pretty hurried, because it was late and I had to get back and sleep. (yes, my bedtime is exactly when the sun’s out 😂)

I’m walking, walking, and walking.

And all of a sudden I look up.

I look up and I see the most beautiful green tree that has ever crossed my sight. It wasn’t big, but it was as green as millions of grass fields, and as detailed as the entirety of the human soul.

It was everything you could want, and more.

Unfortunately though…I wasn’t able to lay there, on the bench that was under it, and so my mind was left thinking about it…

This was the second time something like this had happened.

Too often in our lives, we get distracted by our tasks, worries and duties of our world, that we forget to simply stop and enjoy all the wonders that were left on this planet for us.

We are alive, but we aren’t living one second.

When your mind drifts away either in the past, or the future, can you truly say that you are living?

.

.

.

This is a problem that all of us confront with, and it takes away all the beauty of this gifted world.

But…what can we do about it? How can we shift our focus, so as to enjoy every small thing that life throws our way?

Through my experience, I’ve come across 2 steps that made me able to enjoy things such as the aforementioned tree:

1. Learn to be present:

As I said earlier, we’re almost never living in this present moment.

Although, there’s 2 things that will greatly help:

-Meditation:

Yes, I’m aware you were expecting that, but what can you do about it? It’s true. Meditation is one of, if not, the best way to make ourselves more present. (I’ll make a separate article on it, because it would be too much to go into right now)

But I want to you to do this: Take out 5 minutes of your day, each day (no skipping), lay on your bed, and simply focus on the present. Focus on your surroundings, your thoughts, what you feel, and everything in/around you.

Just yesterday I started a ‘1-hour meditation per day’ challenge. And I’m telling you, the amount of things you’re able to digest and think over is simply insane. Start think of meditations as deep thinking sessions, in which you try to be present, and they’ll become much much easier.

-Remind Yourself:

No matter how easy this sounds, it’s right below meditation in terms of importance.

We get caught up so much just thinking of our problems, tasks and every other little shit that simply being reminded to take a step back is all that we need.

So, either put a reminder on your phone for every hour, or simply try creating a voice in your head that constantly says: “Be present you fucker” (that’s the route I chose :)) ) and enjoy the benefits.

2. Be grateful:

Even with all the present-mindedness we achieve by doing the previous things, we’re still dumbasses that don’t know how to appreciate and be grateful. (especially for the small things)

In order to see and love all of the ‘unimportant’ stuff in our lives, we need to make an exercise out of it. After all, gratefulness is just a muscle, one that we need to progressively overload.

If you’ve been in the Self-Improvement scene long enough, you know what I’ll say, but you have to start exercising, and the best way to do that is through:

✨Gratefulness Journaling✨

Each and every single morning, write 10 things you’re grateful for.

“Oh but Victor, I wouldn’t know what to write.😿”

Guess what, THAT’S EXACTLY WHY YOU HAVE TO START.

Excuse me for screaming. :))

This is the problem, the fact that, if I told you right now to tell me 3 things you’re grateful for, you wouldn’t know what to tell me.

To be honest, I thought the same as you when I started, but even so, I knew that I had to do it if I wanted to improve.

It’s been 9 months since then, and I’ve probably accumulated around 2700 things that I wrote between each of my journals.

Every time I tell somebody that, they think it’s impossible.

But it’s not.

Like I said, it’s simply a practice.

With time, you do run out of things to write, but you get so much better at finding them that every small thing becomes a source of joy and appreciation for you.

But…nonetheless, it’s your choice. Do what you want with your life.

Just remember that improving means doing what seems impossible, hard and annoying.

Recap:

1. Be present:

   -Meditation

   -Constant Reminders

2. Be grateful:

   -Gratefulness Journaling

Start doing these, and the joy of every small thing that occurs in your life will overwhelm you.

That’s it. Thank you for reading (if you’ve got here). If you found the article helpful, I’d appreciate sharing the newsletter so that others can get value from it as well, and until next time guys:

Have an amazing week!