How to Feel Happier?
Feeling happy is linked to longer longevity, stronger immunity and better health as we get older but how exactly do we achieve this degree of happiness?
What makes us happy varies from one person to another but it’s something that a lot of us feel is lacking in our lives. Lots of things can give us short term bursts of happiness but it’s long term happiness that can be much more evasive.
We often place a strong emphasis on the people around us and the material things that we have in the belief that this will make us happy but this can mean that the amount of happiness we feel is based on things we can’t control.
If you can start to see happiness and wellbeing as the result of your mind and body working together in tandem, you can begin to see it as something that you can improve by looking within yourself and not relying on outside factors.
How Hypnotherapy Can Help
As a solution focused hypnotherapist, most of my clients come to hypnotherapy because they are battling issues that are affecting their happiness and wellbeing.
Even when the issue appears to be purely health related (for example, with IBS and chronic pain), hypnotherapy can be very successful in improving the situation and getting your wellbeing back on track.
One of the reasons why hypnotherapy can be so successful in helping you to feel happier is its ability to alter the way that you think.
Stress and anxiety can quickly throw your sense of wellbeing off kilter and this can be tackled through hypnotherapy so that you can develop a more positive way of thinking. Your thought patterns can be adapted at an unconscious level to bring about a healthier attitude and perspective that is a lot more beneficial for your wellbeing.
Hypnotherapy can also change the way you react to stress and external factors you can’t control, which can reduce much of the negativity in your mind that would otherwise affect your wellbeing.
Positive thinking has another big benefit for helping you to feel happier too. It affects serotonin levels and decreases levels of the stress hormone, cortisol. You’re a lot more likely to have a happier state of mind if you don’t have low serotonin levels.
5 Ways to Get a Bit More Happy in Your Life
Hypnotherapy can be a great solution for achieving longer term happiness but there are a few ways you can feel happier in the short term too.
These are based around increasing your levels of some key neurotransmitters and hormones, which are known to improve wellbeing – namely serotonin, dopamine and oxytocin.
Get Out in the Sun
When the British weather gives us some sun, take advantage of the vitamin D it provides as this promotes serotonin production. The rest of the time, it’s a good idea to get more vitamin D into your diet through foods that contain tryptophan (which is converted into serotonin) such as poultry.
Vitamin D supplements won’t help your body to produce more serotonin but can help to release more neurotransmitters (including serotonin) and have a more indirect effect.
Be Active
Exercise is another natural way to boost serotonin levels, and even just a gentle walk in the fresh air can work wonders for this.
Get a Massage
Studies by the Touch Research Institute at the University of Miami School of Medicine found that receiving a massage can encourage a rise in serotonin levels.
Spend Time With Family and Friends
Being around your nearest and dearest can encourage oxytocin (the ‘cuddle hormone’) to be released and this paves the way for serotonin levels to increase too. One thing to note here – online interaction doesn’t do this so make sure you spend some face-to-face time with the people around you!
Take Care of Your Gut
Serotonin may be closely linked to your mood but up to 90% of it is actually in the gut rather than the brain. This means that a healthy gut is a lot more important than you might think for getting more happy in your life.
Get in touch with me today to start your journey towards greater happiness!
