The art of living is a difficult skill to master. That’s why most of us turn to self-help books, spirituality, and self-enhancement practices to help guides through life. But what if you simplify your life by following bits of advice that are proven to be universally true? To help you out, we’ve collected 6 simple life-skill tips that everyone can use in their day-to-day living, and that definitely won’t result in disappointment. Make sure to consider each one and see the changes taking place.
1. Live a life true to yourself
Have you ever asked yourself what it means to become a mature person? Paying your bills and taking responsibility for your actions seems to be the universal answer to this question. However, true maturity comes when you finally start owning your life or, in other words, living a life true to yourself and not the one others expect that you should live. To do this, you first need to discover who you truly are. Once this happens, you’ll truly be able to live a life of authenticity. But remember, this type of growth takes a whole lifetime to master as explained by Diane Mottl, MSW in Psych Central.
2. Health should be your priority
Let’s face it, the stress of daily living means that most of us have compromised our health time and time again. From losing sleep, binge eating, chain smoking, to skipping doctor’s appointments, life stresses can make us do things that, over time, lead to poor health. Luckily, with most people, today having easy access to healthy lifestyle information, Managing your health has never been easier. Take for instance these guidelines published in the Journal of Midwifery and Woman’s Health that emphasizes the importance of unsaturated fats, whole grains, taking multivitamin, folic acid and vitamin D supplements, and similar things as principles that are considered healthy for anyone and all life stages.
3. Learn how to forgive truly
Bearing grudges is bad for your health and destructive for your relationships. Furthermore, being unforgiving towards your shortcomings can suck the life out of you. Instead, learn how to accept yours and others’ shortcomings and your life will take on a whole new meaning. You’ll become more emphatic, and you’ll learn to love and accept yourself and others for who they are. This was proven to be true in a study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. The study found that forgiveness learning and accepting increased empathy for the offender and prevented unhealthy behavior such as avoidance and hostility.
4. Don’t take other’s opinions personally
This one is strongly linked to the first advice on authentic living as it requires a great deal of self-awareness to master. Most of us are guilty of building our self-esteem on others’ opinions, and this was even confirmed in a survey study published in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. The problem with this type of behavior is that other’s opinions of you are based on their internal values and views of how the world should be. If you base your self-esteem on what others think of you, your self-esteem will be at the mercy of those around you, and you’ll be less likely to get to know your true self – that part of you that you only have access to.
5. Don’t let money govern your life
In our modern-day capitalist societies, everyone gets caught up easily in the web of materialism. What is even worse is the fact that we’re all conditioned to believe that earning and spending more is somehow the goal of our existence. But once you snap out of this belief, you’ll be able to govern your money instead of the other way around. Just think about how you’ve based your life choices on money and how much stress thinking about money causes you. Truth be told, we need money to survive, but money is not all there is to life.
6. Know that happiness is a choice
Life is not easy for most of us, but that doesn’t mean that we should wallow in our misery. If you think about it, being happy doesn’t have anything to do with your life circumstances. Many well-off and privileged people are deeply unhappy while some less fortunate folks seem to enjoy life to the fullest. Happiness, after all, depends on your views and decisions. Make happiness your choice, and you’ll see it become a reality.
Conclusion
We all want to live a meaningful and joyous life, but this simple wish doesn’t come easily to most people. It takes a bit of effort and introspection to learn how to live a life of authenticity, meaning, and happiness. These 6 guides are rough outlines of some universal truths that we’re sure you’ll find useful in creating the life you want.
References:
http://psychcentral.com/lib/ways-of-living-an-authentic-life/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3471136/
Erin shows overscheduled, overwhelmed women how to do less so that they can achieve more. Traditional productivity books—written by men—barely touch the tangle of cultural pressures that women feel when facing down a to-do list. How to Get Sh*t Done will teach you how to zero in on the three areas of your life where you want to excel, and then it will show you how to off-load, outsource, or just stop giving a damn about the rest.
