My Best Self May Happiness

This month – May - is focused on happiness. Becoming and being our happiest selves.

There is good evidence that true happiness comes not from owning more things, or packing more activity into our lives - but from connecting with others, finding meaning in what we do, appreciating what we have in life, and doing things for other people.

But sometimes, when life is particularly busy and stressed, or things seem particularly tough for us, it can be really hard to remember what happy feels like.

A good starting point is to write down a few times when you have been really happy. Perhaps one from childhood, one from adulthood, and one really recent time. Not to feel nostalgic for those times, but to try to find some themes in there.

For myself, family, laughter, sunshine, and feeling inspired, all play a big part in my happy times. Also, a real sense of carefreeness, of no worries or responsibilities at that moment - of being completely in the present.

Holidays can often create this carefree feeling, but we need to be able to bring it about in our day-to-day lives too.

For me, going to see a great art exhibition, where I am fully immersed in the power of the work, immediately makes me happy and keeps me completely in the moment. The powerful, vivid, brightly-coloured landscapes of David Hockney, in the current Tate exhibition, or work by my favourite artists, Georgia O'Keefe and Matisse, always have this effect on me.

For you, it might be immersion in live music, theatre, dancing, sport or yoga. Something which takes over all your senses and keeps you inspired, excited, and focused.

This month, we want to really identify the things that make us happy, and make sure we plan time for them in our busy lives. Some moments of pure happiness are unplanned, of course - and we all want lots of those too.

But to be at our best, and to really be able to give generously to others of our time and our spirit, we need to experience happiness ourselves, often.

So, do some thinking, and some remembering. Work out what makes you happy. And find ways of building those things into your life - each month would be good; each week better still.

Download our Happy May planner here, and read our other blogs on Happiness here. And let us know how you get on, being your happiest, most joyful self this month!