You can choose to be happy today
"Happiness is a choice," though this is real, it is difficult to find happiness in a world full of negativity. Choosing happiness is not just as simple as choosing to be happy, it is parallel to change on daily activities, preferences, hobbies, mindsets, or a complete change of lifestyle. When you find yourself drowning in a deep ocean of negative thoughts, there are things that you can do to be happy.
As I have introduced myself before, I am working as a Quality Assurance and Process Improvement Specialist in a BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) company. My job is to audit calls of agents to make sure it adheres with the process and the quality grid set to us by our client. I am assigned to do high-escalation audit where I need to perform root cause analysis why customers send email complaints to the Chief Executive Office (CEO). I read the emails and follow the journey from the first time they called/chatted until email was sent.
There are only three possible causes why a customer will complain to the CEO, it is either process, system, or agent driven. Our top priority is to eliminate the agent driven complaints by sending a memo (which will merit a progressive discipline and may subject an agent to termination) and giving recommendations. Then address all process and system driven complaints by doing analysis. Once analysis is done, our process improvement managers, will be doing a client call to present this and come up with solutions.
Being assigned to high-escalation audit is really stressful. I have to go through the whole unhappy journey, where most of the time I listen to distressed calls; customers shouting to the agent, cussing, complaining. Worst is, most of the complaints are agent driven and it is painful to send memo which may subject an agent to termination. Whenever I need to send one, I have moments where I am thinking of possibilities that the agent has a kid to feed, or a sick parent, or is a bread winner at home. I can't help it when negative thoughts kick in no matter how I convince myself that I am just doing my job.
The stress level and anxiety from what I am doing is bad for me (considering the depression I’ve been through) as it may cause a relapse. Good thing I have a remedy and should you commit to choose happiness too, here are some of the things recommended (which you may practice too as long as you want or as long as needed) to stop negativity and find happiness.
To do list:
Do an Act of Kindness
It's not our job to play judge and jury, to determine who is worthy of our kindness and who is not. We just need to be kind, unconditionally and without ulterior motive, even - or rather, especially - when we'd prefer not to be. - Josh Radnor
An act of kindness can be of many forms. It can be complimenting a colleague or friend. Helping a pregnant woman carry a heavy bag (just make sure not to run with it). Sharing a food to your friend or to a homeless. Giving your seat in the train to an elderly. Or as simple as up voting a post on steemit (if you are not yet on steemit, you'll know what an upvote is once you join and would understand why it is an act of kindness). According to studies, levels of dopamine elevates when we do an act of kindness to others, which enhances our feel-good brainwaves.
Dopamine according to Science Daily, is a neurotransmitter which sends signals to neurons. It is responsible in controlling mental and emotional responses and motor reactions. It is also called as the “happy hormone" because it is the reason why we experience happiness.
Listen to Music
One good thing about music, when it hits you, you feel no pain. - Bob Marley
Music plays an important role in our lives. It is a therapy that can make us feel better and improve our mood. If you are feeling a little down, have your headset ready plug it and play your favorite playlist. Enter your own universe and later on you will realize that you are already relaxed. There is actually a research to back this up. According to the review in The Lancet they found out that patient who listened to music before, during, or after a surgery experienced less pain and anxiety, compared to those who did not listen to music. Researchers conducted study on the data from 73 trials which involved 7,000 patients. This only proves how vital music is to our lives.
Do physical activities/Exercise
For me, fitness is not just about hitting the gym; it is also about an inner happiness and an overall well-being. - Rakul Preet Singh
In this era where we spend most of our time in front of our computers or paperwork, we tend to have a sedentary lifestyle. Not having too much physical activities will make us focused on our anxieties, stress, etc and will lessen the release of hormones or chemicals in our brain that serves as mood enhancement. One solution to divert your attention is to do a little or extreme exercise/workout. Not only does it shifts your attention to your body, but it is also a good alternative to enhance mood. Studies have suggested that exercise can cause a release of hormones and chemicals from the brain like endorphins. Endorphins then communicates to our brain to lessen perception of pain. This is also responsible on the feel-good or positive feeling we have in our body.
You don't really have to enroll to the gym to do this. You can do jogging in a park, join zumba sessions, dance in your home, or take the stairs rather than using the elevator. Any form of physical activities can help in shutting off negativity in life.
Meditate/Quiet Time
Meditation can help us embrace our worries, our fear, our anger; and that is very healing. We let our own natural capacity of healing do the work. - Thich Nhat Hanh
Meditation does not require you to be religious, all it requires is for you to focus on your breathing. This will cause de-cluttering of mind, enhance constructive thoughts and positive emotions; and brings an immediate relief. You'll achieve a sense of calmness and peace of mind through meditating which in turn help you control stress, anxieties, and the like.
Appreciate Nature
Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop away from you like the leaves of Autumn. - John Muir
Nothing beats seeing the sunset in a beach. Being close to nature is one way of calming our soul. Away from the noise of the city and tall buildings, take time to appreciate nature. Try travelling and embrace the breeze while walking on the seashore. Listen to the waves of the sea as it hits the shore. You may also try trekking where not only will you be doing physical activity, but also you will be close to nature.
Even a simple lying on the grass looking at the sky and the clouds, feeling the wind calmly caressing your body will do.
Communicate
An instant pick-me-up is when you communicate with a love one or a friend. Just hearing their voice on the phone or seeing and talking with them through facetime, skype, will be a perfect remedy to shut down all the negativity in life. Hearing their words of advice would boost our morale and energy. A friend or anyone you love can make you feel loved and love is one of the primary reason why serotonin, dopamine, and other brain chemicals gets elevated.
We are at advantage because communication has been made easy by technology, thus talking to someone you love is just on our fingertips. Unlike before, the only way of communication is through telegraph/letters or snail mail (that will take awhile for you to be happy huh). We should utilize innovation to help us be happier and start communicating with people we love.
Laugh more
Always laugh when you can. It is cheap medicine. -Lord Byron
It is a cliché, “laughter is the best medicine" but what other way can I best describe a laugh than that. Laugh more as it is the best remedy to release tension. Primary medicines are memes, epic fail videos, comedy movie or series, etc. Give yourself a time to laugh either through searching memes, watching funny video, or throw jokes with colleagues. Need I say more?
Appreciate things Around You
Appreciation is a wonderful thing: It makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well. - Voltaire
Make a conscious effort to appreciate things that you see around you. It can be as simple as a group of friends laughing at something, a couple loving each other, or a photo of your family. Try decorating your office table according to how you like it to be decorated. You may also choose a wallpaper on your laptop or computer that will best suits your preference. Negative thoughts wont kick in when we are in a state of appreciation.
Create a Gratitude List
One way to love yourself and take charge of your life is through the practice of gratitude. Practicing gratitude increases self-awareness. - Veronica Smith
Think of things that you are most grateful for in a week or even in a month and create a list of it. Have it listed on your sticky notes or planner and remind yourself of these things. The high vibe feeling will diffuse the negativity in your brain as if it is resetting our thoughts. That is why on a monthly basis I list down all the blessings/things that I am most grateful for. That includes steemit on the number one spot for this month.
Look for a Medium to express yourself
Whether you love to sing, create music, write poems, write stories, or do blogs/vlogs, you have to look for a medium to do all of these. This will help in removing negativity, stress, anxiety inside our brain. This is the reason why I am grateful to have known steemit. This is a medium I use to express myself in a way that releases my pain, emotions, negativity and even anxieties. By sharing my writings and experiences, I feel relieved.
Reading posts and articles here also helped me. I got inspired by those people who are sharing their life stories and how they are coping with life. I am inspired with the talents too, how they do their poems, stories and artworks through drawing, digital art, photography and many more. Also, through this I found one of my purpose, to reach out to those who might also be going through depression or any other struggles in life and be a beacon of hope to them by leaving positive comments and sharing my own stories.
Expressing yourself is a great way to remove negativities in life. You can have all the mediums you need through steem.
If you are into videos you can use 
DTUBE aims to become an alternative to YouTube that allows you to watch or upload videos on IPFS and share or comment about it on the immutable STEEM Blockchain, while earning cryptocurrency doing it.
You can showcase your photography skills through 
Steepshot is a platform that rewards people for sharing their lifestyle and visual experience built on the basis of Steem blockchain. The main difference is decentralized nature and crypto rewards. Today users all over the world spend around 150 000 000 hours daily on Instagram. Instagram capitalization is now somewhere between $35-84 bln. However, the platform still never rewards users for their contributions and has the right for content censorship.
You can share your blog through steemit or busy.org and write anything your want that may help the community.
Steemit is a blogging and social networking website on top of the Steem circlechain database. The Steem blockchain produces Steem and Steem Dollars which are tradeable tokens users obtain for posting, discovering, and commenting on interesting content.
There are a lot more things that can be done through steem. You will love the community as much as I love it too. One of the best things here is talented or untalented, you are welcome. We help each other through appreciation and support each one to be better daily on our posts. That's the steem way which can surely help in finding happiness and turning off negativity.
Be a beacon of hope
As part of my mission to be a beacon of hope to everyone, those are the 10 primary to do list you can take note to shut down negativity, stress, anxiety and even depression. I attest to all those things mentioned, as it worked for me. In this imperfect world you can find remedies to experience state of bliss. Share this to the people you love whom you think might also be drowning on a deep ocean of negativity and be a beacon of hope to them as well.
