Turn that Frown Upside Down: 11 Secrets to Happiness

Have you ever encountered certain people who, despite their own problems and struggles in life, stay positive and joyful all the time?

Every time you pass them by, they exude an aura of cheerfulness that pulls people's attention toward them.

You can easily relate with them in conversation and you would immediately feel comfortable around them.

I have met and made friends with people like this and I can tell you, it's going to be life-changing.

Being surrounded with really joyful people and being able to experience insurmountable and irrepressible joy myself, I have observed that there are things we can do that would make us feel happy at any point of our lives and I would like to share them with you.

1. Always Keep Yourself Healthy
Whenever my friend Andrea skips breakfast, she becomes cranky and irritable. There were also times when I skipped lunch for a few hours just to get my appointments done but then I would come down with a headache and I would have to take some time to rest.

Also, don't get me started with the high school days when our schedules were so hectic with tons of homework and projects piled on my desk, enough to keep me awake until two in the morning. The timetables back then just seem to squeeze all the juices in my brain and drain all my physical energy.

But now, I learned that no matter how demanding your work or school may get, you should never compromise your health because what is a higher salary or better grades worth if your health is deteriorating and you catch all sorts of diseases?

Always eat a balanced diet and have a small meal every three hours if you can't pack them all up in three meals. There are actually certain food that contain tryptophan which will be converted to serotonin - the brain neurotransmitter that helps regulate our appetite, sleep, and mood.

I learned from an article I found while scrolling down in Facebook which said that bananas are one source of tryptophan and so explains why I feel the way I do when I eat bananas.

Remember to sleep as early as you can. Preferably around 9 o'clock since this is the time when your hormones usually get pumped into your system to prepare you to sleep.

However as I have learned, the teenage brain undergoes a certain change that may give you a slight setback and cause you to sleep as early as 11 o'clock.

If you want to know more about the mechanism of a teenage brain, the article "Sleep and the Teenage Brain," from brainpickings.org will explain these interesting facts.

Daily exercise can go a long way. It doesn't matter how intense your exercise is or what motivations you have for exercising but let's face it, our body needs to move and to stretch so that we can stay active and healthy.

You can try to take baby steps first like walking to work or jogging around campus or a park during the weekends then you can keep pushing yourself to the limits until you eventually are able to do more strenuous and lengthy exercises.

Stay healthy and you will be happy!

2. Be Comfortable in Your Own Skin
Accept yourself for who you are and for who you are not. I used to be insecure about the way I look, about my own physical imperfections, and I would try to hide behind my shame but I was miserable.

I would look at myself in the mirror and wish that one morning I would wake up and everything was perfect only to have the truth smacked at my face that I am not perfect.

But the thing is, outward appearances don't matter because what matters is your heart and who you are on the inside and I have Jesus in me and nothing can compare to His glory.

I may not be as sexy or as tall as other people are but I choose to accept that about myself because Jesus is making me the person He has planned me to be. God gave us talents and our own spotlight where we can shine, just trust Him.

It doesn't really take much effort to change the way you see yourself. Just believe that you are special and that people will love you not because of the way you look but by your personality, attitude, and positive disposition in life.

If they can't look past your appearances, then that's their problem not yours and just pray for them that God open their eyes to what's truly beautiful and to see the beauty in people.

So now, I am able to let go of my insecurities holding on to the promise that Jesus gave us and that's what brings joy in my heart.

What matters is not how people see me but how God sees me because it is He who made everything that is beautiful and wonderful in the universe and in His eyes, I am beautiful.

3. Develop Lasting Bonds with People
One can never know the true meaning of loneliness until he longs for the companionship of other people. Our lives should not be centered around us.

We need to develop relationships and forge bonds with people whom we share a special connection and understanding with. These are the people who will truly support you and care for you especially during your saddest moments.

Being able to share a sense of camaraderie with someone else makes me happy because I know that there is someone out there who understands me.

We are naturally social creatures and we need to have some sort of social relationship with others because that is when we feel that our lives are significant to at least one person.

To have friends is more than just being with each other rather it is making the other feel that they are important to you.

4. Go Out of the House Once in a While
These past few days I have been taking some driving lessons and it's nice to get out of the house because you get to breathe the fresh air and admire the beauty of nature around you.

Just like animals locked in a cage, staying at home all the time will make you crazy in more ways than one, I assure you.

If you want to find happiness in your life, it's definitely not through staying indoors most of the time. Feel the warmth of the sun touching your skin or the wind as it caresses your hair.

Walk outside and talk to some people, maybe even go stroll in the park and who knows what you might find. Go out and have an adventure!

5. Find Time to Reflect and Meditate 
After going out and having an adventure, it would be nice to go into that silent place where you can hear your own thoughts and that small voice within you.

A drunk philosopher once said that "the unreflected life is not worth living." When you to start to make sense out of your life, you would realize that there are certain things unnecessary for you to be happy.

6. Bless Someone Through Giving
I believe that when we give to someone, we not only bless them but we too are blessed to see them smile and feel that they are loved.

The Bible tells us that it is far better to give than to receive and it speaks the truth because whenever we give something - whether it be our time, our treasure, or our talents - without expecting anything in return, God will bless our hearts.

He will bring joy in our life and return what we have given tenfold. It doesn't matter how much you give, what matters is your attitude in giving.

7. Reconcile with People You Have Hurt or Have Hurt You
Forgiveness is perhaps one of the most difficult principles to apply in our lives, isn't it?

Whenever we think of the injustices and the wrongs that have been done to us, we feel that the people who did those to us are not worthy of our forgiveness.

We feel that justice must be served and that those people receive what they deserve - an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.

However, as a matter of fact, we ourselves are no different from those people. As it is written in God's Word, we are all sinners and have equally fallen short of the glory of God but the amazing thing is that God the Father sent Jesus, His Son, to die for us so that our sins would be forgiven.

If God, who is the creator of the universe and the only one truly qualified to pass judgment upon us, chose to forgive us, how much more should we forgive those who have done wrong to us?

Let us not allow pride be our downfall. Reconcile with those who have wronged us and also those whom we have wronged.

8. Learn from Other People
We must accept the truth that we don't know everything that is in this world and the universe. We have to be able to open our hearts and our minds to accept what others have to teach us and we should humbly accept their lessons and corrections to us.

When we are being told what to do and what not to do, we must listen to what those people are saying because there is truth in what your elders or your parents or your teachers tell you.

We do not know all the secrets there is in life but the Bible offers some good advice: "Submit to God and be at peace with him; in this way prosperity will come to you. Accept instruction from His mouth and lay up His words in your heart."

9. Try Something New and Out of the Box
When we do the same routine tasks every day of our lives, doesn't it get boring? We need to shake things up a bit sometimes because we can live a happy life if it's all in grayscale.

I suggest to try out something crazy or interesting once in a while to give some resplendence into your daily experiences of life. Lately, I have been thinking of building my own ant farm or maybe doing some origami or even try my hand out at wood carving.

List down the activities you are interested in and try to see which ones are feasible or which ones you can do right now and try them out!

10. Let Love into Your Life
Disney's Frozen phrases it splendidly: "Only an act of true love can thaw a frozen heart." Not only that, it can also bring joy into your life. To be able to let love in our life, we must also be able to give love to other people.

We need to show others that we truly love them and care for them even if they don't love us back and this applies to all types of relationships even to those people we consider our "enemies".

We need to love them as we love ourselves. Despite all the pain and hurt that they have caused us, we should be able to forgive them out of this love that was actually given to us through Jesus.

Let love, joy, and peace rule in your heart! 

11. Let Go and Let God
This phrase has popped up in my life frequently this year. I have learned to let go of my insecurities, fears, worries, anxieties, pain, sins, attitude, and everything that I tried to control in my life and I surrender them all to God.

I can tell you that I have felt lighter and more at ease with my life.

The Bible commands us to "cast all our cares upon the Lord because He cares for us," which basically tells us to stop worrying about the problems in our life - the bills, the college tuition, the relationships, the grades - and let God do all the fixing and the solving because He loves us.

He wants us to trust Him on these things and He is testing if we will put our faith in His hands.

It's not going to be a smooth ride, however, but I can assure you that it's going to be fulfilling and that He will never fail you.

We may not know every detail of what's happening to us and sometimes we might get too entangled by the problems of the world that we forget that we have God on our side and that He is bigger than any problem this world can give us.

So just trust Him!