The Art Of Being A Happy, Healthy Person: 6 Simple Habits Of Naturally Happy And Healthy People
What naturally happy, healthy people understand the rest of us don't.
TONL Imagery | Canva The intersection of happiness and health isn't accidental. Research consistently shows that our mental and physical well-being are deeply connected, each one supporting and enhancing the other. When you prioritize your emotional health, your body benefits, and when you care for your physical health, your mood and resilience improve.
The following habits are straightforward, practical behaviors that fit into real life, regardless of what that might look like. The path to becoming a happier, healthier person starts with small, consistent choices that compound into a vibrant, fulfilling life that feels as good as it looks from the outside.
Here are 6 simple habits of naturally happy and healthy people:
1. They stop searching
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A curious thing happens when we do as 99% of humans do, which is to search for happiness: we become unhappy. If we’re knowingly pursuing the illusion of ‘happiness’, we are unwittingly communicating to ourselves that we’re — you guessed it — not happy. The chase emphasizes the lack.
When I reveal to my clients they already have everything they need to be happy, right here, right now — I always enjoy watching the relief wash over them. ‘You mean I don’t need to get rid of X to be happy?’ You can prioritize those things if you like.
But you do it from a place of wholeness and innate happiness. When you approach life from happiness, you perform 100x better.
2. They can sense connectedness
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Recently, as I was sitting taking notes by the river, someone waved at me from a passing boat. Whether it was aimed at me or not didn’t matter. I waved back in acknowledgment of my understanding and confirmation that we were all connected. To sense the connection we have with all things is happiness.
By creating the reality we want, we confirm it. If we see others as connected, we are connected. If we see ourselves as a victim or an island, we create that reality, and we feel the depression of that reality. Seeing continual confirmation of your connection to other people, regardless of who they are, is a high-consciousness life hack.
Research has found that a strong sense of connectedness can create a positive cycle, where feeling connected leads to positive social, emotional, and physical outcomes. The benefits of which, in turn, strengthen existing connections.
3. They stop ruminating on problems
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For those with significant mental health or other issues, some kind of therapy for some time can be necessary, of course. But after a point, I believe that over-emphasis or fixating on our problems can backfire.
When we focus on fixing our perceived problems, we inadvertently emphasize our issues in the mind, thus enlarging them. Instead, we must focus on our work, developing our skills, creating value in the world, and helping others. That gets us out of our heads, away from our narcissistic self-obsession. When we do this, we realize that often, mental wellness was there all along.
4. They prioritize light-heartedness
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The happiest, healthiest people by no means have ideal lives. No one does. Even the people you envy are dealing with stuff you don’t want. What happy people have in common is maintaining a continual need to keep things light.
I’m not saying you should be the over-the-top insufferable pun joke-telling guy who smiles when things need to appropriately be more low-key. No.
I’m talking about being light-hearted where appropriate and keeping the people around them lifted. Most people are focused on their miseries. Happy people transcend this and actively practice the art of light-heartedness.
A lighthearted attitude is not an avoidance of seriousness but a way of balancing seriousness with a sense of lightness. Research argues that this reframing perspective allows individuals to cope more effectively with stress and adversity.
5. They befriend the dark
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Want to know the quickest way to be continually miserable? Resist bad’ stuff. Resist your inner shadow side. Refuse to accept the cruelty of human nature. Moan when it rains.
You could never enjoy life if there weren’t darker moments, and you could never truly embrace human nature or yourself if you didn’t accept and acknowledge our darker elements. Happy people have accepted the horrors lurking in the dimly lit avenues of the world around us.
They don’t reel off hundreds of affirmations with a forced smile, hoping and praying the bad things get covered up like clown paint and disappear. Happy people are not deluded. They accept. They use their aggressive nature. They learn to love reality for what it is. They do what they can to address evil, but they don’t try to change things out of their control.
6. They're actively compassionate
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No one is born any less compassionate than the next person, even though it doesn’t seem that way as we mature. But we always have a choice.
We can find things to like in other people. We can find reasons to love others (even if they choose to dye their hair blue). Compassion is part of what it means to be human. It isn’t to be deluded or a ‘hopeless optimist.’
Research shows a strong link between compassionate behavior and greater overall happiness and life satisfaction. This is partly due to the helper's high, a euphoric feeling from helping others.
It is to open up to humanity and expect the best in others. It is to see ourselves in others. When we do the opposite, we become jaded and bitter, tighten around people, and fail to seize opportunities for healthy collaboration and mutual joy. We lose the most in the end.
Alex Mathers is a writer and coach who helps you build a money-making personal brand with your knowledge and skills while staying mentally resilient. He's the author of the Mastery Den newsletter, which helps people triple their productivity.
