How to Improve Your Life - Tips and Ways to Make Life Better
This post is full of my best tips and ways for you to find out how to improve your life. These are simple things and small steps to better the quality of your life, and to help you with personal growth. Find motivation and ideas for good habits to have, and what things to do to make your life better.
Now, more than ever before, we are all looking for things to make life feel better and worth living. Pandemics have that effect, I guess. So here are a few ideas of my favourite ways and good habits to help better our lives. They are simple, little steps and things to do that you can easily add to your day, and notice a real difference in your outlook towards life. A lot of these things are proven to help you live happier, more fulfilled lives and feel better overall.
Journal Often:
I am an avid journaler, if that’s a thing. I love keeping and writing in a journal. I’ve done this ever since I can remember, but inconsistently. Over the last year, however, I became really consistent with journaling and it has helped improved the quality of my life and mental state A LOT.
In 2020, I completely filled my first ever journal, and it felt like quite an achievement. I have a record of my personal growth, my thoughts, my life, my progress, my mental health, and much more. It feels great to look back through a journal and see your self improvement.
I truly believe consistent journaling is one of the most cathartic, best things you can add to your life to make it better. In so many ways, it improves and adds to your life and wellness. If you’re intrigued, you can check out these two posts about journaling, that I believe will help you with all the motivation and tips you need to start writing in a journal.
Journaling Benefits and Inspiration: Journal Writing For Beginners
Water Intake:
Yes, I know, this is really basic and everyone is aware of it. But, somehow, we all still need reminders and motivation to actually work on our water intake. I’m going to try to avoid giving you the same old advice, tips and reasons to work on your water intake. Let’s see what I can come up with.
Having about 2 Litres of water a day is necessary for most adults. I’ve reached the point where I now have 1.5-2 Litres a day without even realizing it, and without really making an effort. How did I form this habit? Anxiety, lol. I have formed the habit of taking sips of water whenever I feel a little anxious. It’s a reflex, at this point. As soon as I’m even slightly uncomfortable, I drink a little water. Ever since middle school, I’ve been the weirdo that carries around a water bottle EVERYWHERE.
Now, I’m not asking you to develop an anxiety disorder. All I’m saying is, make a habit out of carrying a bottle of water wherever you go. I’m talking even from one room to the other at home. My phone and water bottle go everywhere with me. It really makes a difference. Your skin feels better, your body feels healthier and happier everyday, and you feel like you’re taking care of yourself which is a goal achieved. It also has a domino effect and you feel energized to make even more positive, healthy changes to your life and routine.
Keep Moving:
I’m not big on working out…because I’m lazy. But, I do notice a huge difference in my mental and physical state when I keep moving throughout the day. Light exercise is great for your body and mind. If you’e working, get up frequently for little walks. If you can’t, then make sure you go for a stroll at some point in the day. Maybe, even a bike ride.
If you don’t know how to ride a bike, here’s a super easy tutorial I shared, when I learned to ride a bicycle recently:
Simple, Step-By-Step Guide To Learn How To Ride a Bicycle - Beginner Tutorial
When you keep your body moving through the day, you will start to notice that you actually feel more energized and your productivity will increase. This happens because when you exercise, your heart rate, blood flow, and endorphins increase. When you keep your body moving, these changes help you think clearly and have a better outlook on life. Try it and see for yourself. :) There’s a reason people get addicted to working out.
Solo Dance Party:
This one is self-explanatory. Put on your favourite playlist and just dance your heart out. Music is the best mood-lifter in my opinion, and after a good music and dance session, I always feel so happy to be alive. Keep in mind, I am by no means a good dancer. Thus, the ‘solo’ dance party.
My favourite place to enjoy music and get transported to a different world is in the car. Try going for a drive and blasting your favourite music. It’s an instant mood booster, and when you’re done, you will be able to see life more positively and feel genuinely happy to be alive. You’ll find yourself ready to tackle anything with a new and improved mindset.
Frequent sessions of listening to feel-good music (which is different for different people, so this could be whatever music makes you feel BEST) is truly a game-changer when it comes to making life feel so much better and easier.
Read Often:
This is something I’m still working on getting better at, but oh my God, books are such a gift. Reading transports you to different worlds and leaves you feeling so inspired to live differently. Whenever I finish reading a book, it leaves me with a new mindset, and renewed inspiration for the life I want to create for myself.
I mainly read fiction novels at the moment, and I love being engrossed in different stories and worlds. I love learning new words, gaining general life inspo, and also just feeling accomplished when I finish reading a book.
If you’d like to start with easy, light reads to try and get into the flow of reading, check out this book haul post I wrote a few months ago. It’s a list of great, well-recommended books of different genres of stories, so you’re likely to find something that would suit your taste.
Best Books To Read - Top Recommended Young Adult Book Haul
If you’re not big on fiction or young adult novels, try one of the inspirational, transformational self help books from this list compiled by my mom. :)
The Best, Life Changing, Inspirational Self-Help Books You Must Read For Personal Development
Learn New Things:
One of the best ways to improve the quality of your life is to add knowledge or a new skill to it. These days, there’s no excuse for not learning something new. The internet is a sea of free and paid courses and video tutorials/classes for literally any topic you may be interested in. There’s no dearth of information.
Think of any skill you’d like to start learning, or any subject you’d like more information on, and just begin. If you don’t want to invest money, look up free courses or tutorials in the subject.
I recently started learning more about writing and blogging through free courses on Open University. You could also check out Skillshare, Udemy, or Edx. I’ve heard good things about all of these, and they all offer free knowledge in a huge variety of subjects and skills.
You will feel so good about yourself and your accomplishments when you work on gaining new skills. It helps improve your life practically, but also helps with your self esteem and broadening your capabilities, which will further improve your quality of life. It’s a win-win situation.
Being in Nature:
Nature is healing, both physically and mentally. It’s normal to feel overwhelmed and disheartened sometimes, but sitting in nature can be so rejuvenating.
My favourite place to be with and in nature, is at the beach. I know not everyone around the world has access to a beach, but any form of nature will be great. Go sit in a park, or a garden, or any other place that you know of where you can be surrounded by nature. You could even start gardening and create your own little area filled with nature.
It’s so uplifting, and replenishes your soul, therefore changing your perspective of life and improving the quality of your life. Do this often - a few times a week, even everyday if you can. Go to different places where you are around nature, so that it doesn’t get mundane and boring quickly.
Practice Meditation and Mindfulness:
One of the best ways to get in touch with your self and replenish your zest for life is through frequently practicing meditation and mindfulness.
There are plenty of meditative activities like writing, coloring/painting, cleaning/organizing, crafting, gardening, cycling, etc. As you try any of these mindful activities, you will start to notice how therapeutic they can be. They keep your mind occupied, but not busy or overwhelmed. They calm you on a deeper level.
Other than these little activities, you can try actually sitting and meditating - deep breathing and sitting in silence. If you’re a beginner to meditation and would like to try it, my mother wrote out a post with some of the best tips to help you start meditating as a total beginner:
Easy Meditation Tips and Techniques For Beginners: Mindfulness at Home
Experience New Things and New Places:
When you feel like you’re in a rut and not liking your mundane life anymore, make an effort to do different things, or do things differently. ‘The brain needs a certain amount of routine, but it also needs some novelty to function well.’ - Advice from my therapist.
Change up your routine - move things around to different times, or even just change the things that make up your routine. Another way (my favourite) to switch things up in life, is to make a list of new places that you want to visit, or new experiences you want to have. I don’t mean bucket list stuff like skydiving or traveling. I mean normal everyday stuff and places you could visit around you.
When you go to new places and meet new people, even on a small scale, it can make a world of a difference. You basically change your everyday life. It feels different, new and better. Everyone needs some newness every so often. No one wants to live the same day over and over again. So take the first step and plan little excursions for yourself - maybe start with a cafe or restaurant you’ve been wanting to visit for a while. Maybe write in your journal while you’re there. ;) Two birds, one stone. (just realizing how morbid that phrase is.)
Little Self-Care Habits:
Just like the points above, there are tons of little self-care habits that you could develop that will build your self-esteem and self-love, which in turn will help you improve your quality and perspective of life.
When you take care of and feel good about yourself, and accomplish these little feel-good tasks every so often, your Dopamine levels increase. This makes you even more motivated and energized to accomplish more goals. A great domino effect.
Do whatever makes you feel good. Prioritize yourself - mind and body. Style your hair, dress up in comfy clothes and/or clothes that make you feel good about yourself, paint your nails, practice your hobbies, watch your favourite shows or movies, eat your favourite food, and so much more. Just feel good and positive. It will re-energize you and make you feel better about life as a whole.
Here’s our post about self-care routine ideas for you to add to your life, if you’d like more ideas:
Simple, Small Steps To Make Life Better Everyday:
I think the easiest way to enhance your life is by making small and simple positive changes to your daily life. No one knows how to get through life, we’re all just figuring it out as we go along. We need to stop being so hard on ourselves and start taking care of ourselves. That will make it all easier.
By adopting these little ways to improve life and adding them to your routine, I really do believe you will start to feel better about life. You will gain perspective, a more positive outlook, and more confidence to take on this fascinating existence.
I hope this post makes a positive difference to your life and well-being. May you feel a renewed appreciation and inspiration for life and our existence, and wake up everyday, rejuvenated to take on the world. :)
Thanks for reading!