15 Ways to Feel Happier and Less Stressed Out Every Day

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Chances are pretty good that if you clicked on this article, you are feeling fairly stressed out right now, or you feel stress on a regular basis and you are looking for some relief.

There are plenty of things in our modern day life that cause us to feel anxious and stressed – a fight with your spouse or teenage kids, that performance review your boss scheduled for you next week, your sick niece, your aging parents, traffic, and the neighborhood yard sale you still haven’t made any plans for. There are many different ways that stress can rear its ugly head in our day to day lives.

The good news is that there are plenty of ways that we can learn to deal with it. Not everything works for everyone, so try one or two suggestions here and if they don’t work for you, try something else.

Keep reading for some of the best ways you can reduce stress and feel happier every single day.

1. Schedule Me Time

This sounds cliché, but it is true. When you work hard to make everyone else happy except for yourself, no one is really happy. Your boss might be happy that you finished his project on time, but he won’t be happy that you called in sick the following week. Your kids might be happy that you took them to the amusement park, but you won’t be happy that you are exhausted at 8AM on Monday morning. You don’t have to schedule 8 or 12 hours a week for yourself (although if you can pull it off, do it!) but giving yourself just 30 minutes a day to do whatever it is that you want to do: reading a book, taking a bath, or taking mom to lunch are all great ways to relieve stress. When you are sitting in that traffic jam at 5PM, imagine the hot bath you will be soaking in soon.

2. Laugh at Life

Although sometimes it’s hard to find something to laugh at on certain days, try to find three to five funny memories that always make you laugh. Or a couple of jokes or funny stories. If you must, you can always resort to YouTube videos of people falling down, but when you can’t get to a computer, find ways to make yourself LOL. When you are upset or angry or are feeling stressed, go to those funny thoughts and feel free to laugh. Unless you are in a meeting. Better to keep that to yourself or wait until you are back in your office.

3. Go for a Walk

A 10 minute walk can literally do wonders for your mind, as well as boost those feel good endorphins. A walk through a park, the zoo, a beautiful garden, a farmers market, the beach, a lake, or even the woods, the best escapes are out into nature. If you can’t get out to a nature setting, then at least walk to a tree (hopefully with a bench underneath it) and take a moment to zone out.

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