Boost your Happiness with Intentional Living

The modern world we live in is incredibly fast paced and full of distraction. You might find yourself noticing that the day has flown by and you simply haven’t found the time to do the things that set your soul on fire. The days turn into weeks, the weeks into months and the months into years. Unfortunately we spend so much time doing life that we forget to allow space to follow our dreams and create a life of our choosing.

It’s proven to be beneficial to overall happiness when choosing life rather than falling victim to circumstance. Did you know neuroscience studies have discovered that happiness is identified when people feel as though their life is aligning with their goals and dreams? This is the reason for happiness being found in momentary pleasures such as financial gain, new cars, shopping splurges or the ‘honeymoon’ phase in new relationships.

These things help us to feel as though we are moving towards the place we want to be which releases the chemical dopamine into the system to say you’re on the right track, ultimately boosting feelings of happiness. The problem with these temporary feelings is exactly that, they are temporary. We then begin to identify problems and realise the source is no longer fulfilling our desires or was actually never in alignment with our goals in the first place after the initial dopamine dose wears off.

This is where intentional living comes in. You may want to begin by setting some alone time to de-clutter your mind and envision the life you desire by becoming entirely clear on what you really want. Once you have this intention in mind it may be helpful to set your goals for the next year, the next five years and even the next ten. Where do you want to be and how do you intend to get there? Once you have your goals in place it's then up to you to implement small mindful actions everyday to help you move in that direction. These actions don’t have to be groundbreaking or hugely time consuming simply small, intentional and consistent.

When you purposefully set intentions for your life with daily action you are gradually moving towards your desired outcome and you will naturally find that more of the things you want begin to appear and better opportunity arises due to the actions you have been putting into place. Instead of letting distraction decide your destiny you become the creator and the results are limitless. As we discovered earlier feelings of happiness are a result of the brain identifying that our life is aligning with our desires and what better way to guarantee a boost than having it scheduled into your daily routine. This puts you in control of your own ship and ensures its being steered in the right direction.

Mindful and intentional living isn’t spiritual, religious or a stroke of luck it’s simply a way of taking responsibility for the outcome of your life. Once you know what you’re doing and why you’re doing it with a result in mind each daily step in that direction can help to boost your feelings of happiness and overall wellbeing.

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