Happiness. What is it? Everyone has their own idea of what makes them happy and their own vision of what a successful and enriching life is. Common ideas may include a fancy sports car, a trophy spouse, a generous bank account, or an expensive cruise to tropical islands. But these are little more than stereotypes of happiness and material gain, and not everyone can get their hands on those things anyway. But they don’t have to. In fact, if someone takes the opposite approach, happiness and gratitude are actually quite easy to come by. The idea is to not pursue these big examples of material gain to find happiness, but realize the happiness inside the ordinary things in your life. This means gratitude, and having this mindset can make nearly anyone much happier and at peace with their life and the things they have, no matter how much or little that may be. Better yet, anyone can turn to podcast gratitude support from podcasts on gratitude, life coaching, business coaching, and the like.
The Power of Gratitude and Happiness
Studies and surveys are conducted to see how happy Americans are, and that may sound abstract at first, but this really can be measured, along with general gratitude. What do the numbers show? A recent survey shows that only 33% of Americans claimed to be happy in their everyday lives, but there may be ways to fix that, such as podcast gratitude or reading the right books. In fact, this can be good for your health: a 2013 study showed that people who show more gratitude during their everyday lives can sleep better at night, literally. Similarly, a 2011 study showed that writing in a gratitude journal leads to better sleep. Spending just 15 minutes writing down sentiments of gratitude can have that effect, leading to better and longer sleep overall.
Not that all Americans are miserable. Surveys show that 69% of people are grateful when an unexpected good thing happens to them, and 62% of people are grateful for their family and children. Overall, 52% of women and 44% of men express gratitude regularly. If these numbers go up, we can truly live in a happier society. It can all start with podcast gratitude or hiring a meditation coach.
General Paths to Happiness
Every person is different, and no single article or speech can explain the exact route to happiness for everyone. But then again, some general strategies can be followed, and they can lead to some great results once a person tailors them to their own life and personality. Podcast gratitude is a good place to start; that is, the gratitude derived from listening to motivational podcasts on the topic. There are many podcasts out there on many different topics, and gratitude and general happiness are among them. When a person listens to the experts, they may figure out some ways to realize the happiness and good things in their lives. The person’s car can act as a mobile classroom when they listen to these podcasts while commuting or run errands. Why listen to radio ads when you can learn to appreciate the wonderful things in your life a little more?
If need be, a person can turn to personal life coaches, who may be found online. These experts can guide a client toward a better understanding and perspective of the things in their life to be grateful for. Such coaches might encourage productive and positive thinking out of their client, rather than offer their own ideas. The coach helps the client realize the gratitude and happiness that was in them all along.
Other general strategies may involve not only voicing and writing down the good things in one’s life, but avoiding constant materialistic envy. Lots of advertisements want consumers to feel bad about not owning a certain product, to encourage them to buy it and therefore feel better. But that’s a never-ending game of tug of war, so a person may tune out ads and unlearn those feelings of material want both to save money and to enhance gratitude. Why buy more things to fill a hole that’s impossible to fill with merchandise, when you can instead derive calming joy from the nice things you already have?
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