The big 5- Happiness

These are the most important things to get right for our happiness:

Flexible schedule

As International teachers, we get to make the most of this during the summer months. In fact, when this is posted I will either be walking up a volcano, walking through a monkey forest, doing yoga, or sitting on a beach in Bali. It’s easy to say without a doubt this is when we feel happiest and can recharge. I used to think “well duh” because we’re not working. However, I don’t think not working is the reason for this. It is the flexible schedule that makes us feel empowered. Each summer we have been on courses and do things that some people may feel like work. But it is because we are choosing what we are doing and when we do it that it still feels enjoyable.

This flexible schedule is possibly the most important area to work towards. As a teacher, there are obviously set hours that the children will be at work so it’s not an easy thing to achieve all year round. But for a lot of jobs working from home is possible. We’ve recently started to pay attention to our body’s natural energy levels and found what times of the day we are most productive, creative or when we just need to do mundane tasks.

Imagination

I’ve written about having something to look forward to as a way to improve happiness. This is because we are using our imagination to get a hit of positivity before the event even happens. We get another hit during the event itself but it shows the power our mind can have on how happy we are.

If you imagine the future to be worse and can’t see any way it will improve, your happiness levels will be much lower. However, if you have something you are working towards the imagination of this dream lifestyle does almost the same job as living this lifestyle.

Sleep

I love to sleep! Something I have noticed is that I feel a lot more energised when I wake up naturally compared to from an alarm. I have tried an app called sleep cycle, which supposedly wakes you up when you are in light sleep within a half hour time gap. I found it works quite well but I did find that leaving my phone charging overnight seemed to make the battery on my phone die quicker. Since getting a new phone I’ve stopped using it.

It’s known that people that struggle with sleep quite often have something playing on their mind or have poor eating habits (particularly before bed). Meditation and focusing on how you feel after eating different foods can help to change this.

Diet

If you’ve ever spoken to a personal trainer about getting fit they would probably have said something like… “it’s 70% what you eat and only 30% how you train”. Within the last year I have trained for a marathon and then tried to gain weight. What I was eating at the time was so important for both. I really do find what foods I’m eating affects my energy levels, which in turn affects happiness levels.

Next week I will go into more detail about eating what you want when you want (this honestly does work!)

Exercise

You would have probably heard some of the physiological benefits of exercising. Exercise releases the “happiness hormone” serotonin (also by being in the sun, having a massage and some foods such as seeds and food with B6 such as spinach, celery or garlic).

The really interesting part found in studies is that the exercise doesn’t have to be too long or strenuous to achieve this. Going for a brisk walk can increase your immune system and mood.

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Some people may think they’ll be happy when they find that dream job, spouse, house, holiday etc. The beauty is that when you get these 5 things right your chances of finding that dream thing you are looking for will improve, as you will feel better about yourself.

 

 

 

 

Credit:

Scott Adams- How to fail at everything and still win big

 

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We are Sarah and Mike Beatty, an international teaching couple, aged 29, from England. Since mid-2015 we have got married, moved to a new continent, started a business and visited over 10 countries.

So far, on our journey, we have realised the importance of continually being willing to change for the better. This is the reason for our business name “Kaizen”, which is a Japanese philosophy of continuous improvement.