Learn How to Live Life Not Just Exist

The emotion of happiness has been pursued since the dawn of time. Books have been written about how to be happy. Yet, to many, happiness is an elusive emotion. Many individuals speculate on what it takes to be happy and stay happy. Nevertheless, the key to happiness is what your general day-to-day attitude towards your existence entails.

So how does one start living life as opposed to just existing? How do you stop going through the motions of living and start living again? Moreover, how does this fit into everyday life?

Well to start living, you need to re-develop a sense of curiosity, amazement, and awe about the everyday things. You need to start asking questions again. "How?" "What?" "Why?" You need to re-train yourself to see the world not as a tasks or problems to overcome, but as experiences to live. You need to see the specialness in everyday situations. To be happy you need to realize that you're already special because there's not another person walking this earth with your personal combination of DNA, Life Experience, and Personality. Your life already has meaning!

As children, we have a curiosity about the world, but as we become older, we lose our curiosity or we are discouraged by the adults in our lives. How many have you heard the phrase "Don't ask too many questions"? Maybe you have even uttered these words to your own children. By losing your sense of curiosity about the world, you lose the ability to observe your environment, to be engaged with everyday events, to learn new things, and to explore aspects of your inner self.

How long has it been since you've asked yourself these questions? "What am I interested in?", "Have I learned anything new today?" "How does that work? " If you don't remember or haven't asked yourself these questions before you've lost your sense of curiosity. It is part of our nature to explore our environments, once we stop exploring we stop growing, and when we stop growing we lose our joy of life."

Too many of us go through life taking for granted the marvels of everyday life. The fact you wake up in the morning is a miracle! By re-developing your curiosity about the world around you, the pace of your life will slow and you will begin to experience life and not just exist. Once you really start to live life, you will automatically become happier.

A daily commute on the train could become a daily adventure in meeting new and interesting people or the daily drive with your child could become a bonding moment. By encouraging your child's curiosity, you too will discover new things about the world. If you don't know a thing just say so and together discover the answer on the Internet or through books. It may surprise you what you learn about your kids on those daily rides.

You say you don't have the time. Add up the hours you spend this week watching TV. Do you want your kids to remember the special times they spent with you or the program they watched while they were children?

Once you redevelop your curiosity about your world and the people in it, you will discover a completely new universe in your own backyard. Again, you might say, "I don't have the time to do this" but by organizing your daily tasks, you'll find the time.

Treat time as if its money. We learn to budget our money but how many of us budget our time. Just like money, time is not infinite. We only have twenty-four hours in a day and part of those hours are use to work, eat and sleep. It's difficult to make time for the important things in life when we feel we don't have enough hours in a day.

To re-develop your curiosity you must look to the world outside and expand your boundaries. Here are some things to help you expand your boundaries.

Make time to explore nature. As human beings, we are not meant to spend the majority of our time in doors. Seasonal disorders are often caused because of inadequate sun exposure. Going outside to feel the sun on one's face is not only mentally beneficial but also healthful. Our bodies need a certain amount of direct sunlight in order to create vitamin D.

Look for a positive in any situation. Notice the people in around you that seem happy. One thing you will find in common with all of them is a positive outlook on life. By actively seeking out the positives in any situation, you will slowly change how you think about the events in your life. For example, you may have been passed over a promotion but the person who now has that position is working 60 hours a week with no over time.

Realize your attitude towards how you react to things does affect your emotional state.

Think of ways to improve the lives of those around you and do positive things for others. A goal I have everyday is try to doing a nice thing for someone. On some days, it may mean giving someone a smile and a hello. On other days, it may mean volunteering to do something for someone. Your actions do not have to be extravagant, just an act of kindness to another human being. The smile back or the thank you may lift your spirits all day.

Many of us are caught up in the daily grind of life. We forget that there are more things in life than doing our tasks. We'll always have problems but how we face them is the battle between feeling desolate and feeling content. By gently changing your perspective and exploring each day, you avoid getting into the ruts that lead to unhappiness. You may not have the euphoric temporary emotion of happiness, which never lasts, but you will never feel boredom again nor will you feel trapped. There's a big world out there to explore.