The Easiest Way to Be Happier in 2023

The easiest way to be happier in 2023 is to stop thinking about and focusing on what you don’t want! Most of us spend way too much energy on what we don’t want. This just gives us more of the experience of what we don’t want. When you grasp that what you focus on you will get, you become very careful of what you focus on.

Boost your mindfulness and self-awareness. Notice when your thoughts are leading you down a road where you don’t want to go. Then, change the subject. Your internal subject. Make the shift. Ask yourself, “what is it that I want?” Then make the pivot to that subject.  

Stop attracting what you don’t want. Stop thinking about what you don’t want. Stop talking to others about what you don’t want.

We attract and invite these situations and people into our lives by our thoughts.

If in 2022 you could notice you were heading down a negative mental road only after 3 minutes, and in 2023 you can notice and turn things around after one or two minutes, that will make a tremendous difference. You’ll get less worked up, and it will be easier to disengage from your reaction spiral/mental snowball.

It can also help to distract yourself by giving your cortex something to do and an alternative to think about. This gets that part of the brain on-line, so you can get out of the emotional limbic system of the brain. You could start to do some calculations, come up with a food or country that starts with each letter of the alphabet, or think about the contestants on a guilty pleasure reality TV show. Some people find tactile stimulation with a fidget toy or stress ball quiets the noise by giving the brain something else to focus on. Anything you can do to interrupt the pattern or cycle can be helpful.

Good luck in 2023!