Showing posts with label Free Tips. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Free Tips. Show all posts

Wednesday 28 January 2015

5 Proven Quit Smoking Tips to Help You Give up Smoking

Smoking is a habit that is pretty difficult to abandon. Once someone starts smoking and falls into a habit of lighting a cigarette, it becomes very hard to give up the habit. The body gets used to the nicotine and reacts badly when deprived of it. Moreover, the mind also falls into a habit of thinking that the cigarette causes it to relax when tense and thus, starts to crave for the cigarette whenever tense. And these reasons make quitting smoking extremely difficult. However, it’s not impossible. Yes, it needs a lot of willpower but it’s possible. Whether you started to smoke due to peer pressure or because it seemed a cool idea, these quit smoking tips
would help you get across the line and give up the habit once and for all.

Note down the Reasons for Quitting


Knowing your motivation for quitting smoking can help you substantially. Many people try to quit smoking after a certain event but forget it soon after and go back to their old ways. If you want to quit then you must make sure that you remember all of the reasons for which you want to quit smoking. Writing down all the reasons and then keeping the list with you at all times can really help you when you have the craving to light up a cigarette. If you can keep the list in the form of graphics then it would be all the more better.

Tell Your Friends and Family about Your Decision


Sharing news of your decision with your friends and family will not only help you get encouraging responses but will also help you in your weak moments. For instance, if you would have told your friend that you are quitting smoking and then light up a cigarette while with him, he/she would remind you of your pledge and would make you throw away the cigarette too. Things might get complicated if your friends or family members smoke as well. In such a case, you should motivate them to quit smoking as well and then, decide to quit as a group. You would be able to take inspiration from the others and others will take heart from you and as a result, all of you combined would be able to get over the line.

Know Your Triggers


There are always a few triggers that trigger the urge to smoke. Some people light up a cigarette after having a drink while some do so right after a long day. There are always a couple of triggers and if you can identify the moments when your urge for a cigarette is at its peak, you can make sure that you avoid those triggers/moments during the first few weeks. For instance, if you have a smoke after consuming alcohol, you should try not to drink at all or to drink in the presence of a friend or family member who would stop you from lighting up a cigarette.

Mark Each Day on the Calendar


The first few weeks are the toughest and you can treat each day without a cigarette as a successful day. By marking each day since you have not lighted a cigarette, you would give yourself belief after each passing day that you can actually quit the habit. After a few weeks, the marked dates would serve as deterrence for you as you would be reminded of the hard work you have done to stop yourself for so many days.

Stay Positive



You would start feeling depressed with each passing day while your heightened craving would start to sow doubts in your mind about whether or not you can give up smoking after all. However, you should stay positive by telling everyone that you don’t smoke, by tasting different food items and feeling the difference and by seeing the difference in your breath as well. Another way to keep yourself positive would be to eat your favorite food item or hangout at your favorite restaurant with the money you would save by not smoking. Such treats would also serve as motivation to drown the craving of cigarettes.

6 Retirement Tips that will help You Live a Happy Retired Life

Retirement is an inevitable junction in the life of every man and woman. After years of toil and hard work, there comes a time when a person has to hang his boots and start living the life of a retired person. Most people think that retirement signifies the end of your productive years and now all you have to do is to relax and spend your remaining days in a peaceful manner. While there is nothing wrong with this theory, it is not entirely correct as well because there are many activities that even retired people can do to make their life productive. The following are some retirement tips that can assist you in living a happy retired life.

Start a Part-Time Job


Retirement does not mean that you have to stop earning altogether. You can always get a part-time job at the same company where you were employed before retirement and continue to earn your bread yourself. Besides this, there are other part-time jobs available for seniors as well that can help you in easing your financial troubles after retirement. These jobs can help you in remaining active and prove to be good for your health as well.

Take up a Hobby


If you are financially secure and do not have the need or desire to work anymore then taking up a hobby is a great option for you after retirement. Most people have a hobby that they want to pursue earlier on in their life but are not able to find time for it. Once you have retired, you have all the time in the world to pursue that hobby of yours. Even if you do not have an old hobby to fall back on, you can always start a new one to keep yourself busy with.

Volunteering is Fun


Giving back to the society is a great way of spending your retirement years. Enrol yourself in community service or get involved with a volunteer program. You are going to find great joy and satisfaction in helping others and might find a nee purpose for your life as well. There are a number of volunteer programs that are available for older adults that you can join for serving your community.

It’s never too late to Learn


If the pressures of your job or the responsibility of raising children had stopped you from completing your education then the time after retirement is perfect for you to earn that college degree. There are many colleges and universities that are now offering senior citizens the chance to earn degrees or complete their education through special education programs that are designed especially for them. The best thing about these education programs is that they offer discounts to the retired people so you won’t have to pay much for receiving education as well.

You can Always Teach


Teaching is a great way of spending your retirement years as well. Even if you do not have any experience of teaching, you can easily get the job of a teacher in schools and colleges that are looking for teachers with on-field experience. It is up to you to teach for free or take up the job of a full-time teacher.

Set Out On an Expedition


During your youth and working years, you might have had little time to go an expedition. Well, the retirement years are the best ones for you to fulfil this wish of yours. Choose a destination that you have always dreamt of going and set out on an adventure that is surely going to bring you lots of happiness. You can plan this expedition with a group of your retired friends or your partner.

Top 10 Most Effective Weight Loss Tips for Women

Everybody wants to look smart but not everybody can curb their likeness for junk food and total dislike for physical exercise. And so, not everybody gets to have a smart and slender body. But there is nothing to despair about, you can always lose weight and achieve your goals! All you need to do is to believe in yourself and be intelligent in the measures you take to lose weight.
Here are ten proven weight loss tips that can help you fit into that tight jeans you always wanted!

Use Smaller Cups and Smaller Plates

You would never be able to really cut down on your food intake if you would continue to eat in the same bowls and plates. Our mind controls our appetite and it most often considers the stomach to be full when you have eaten a full bowl of noodles or a full plate of chicken curry. By using smaller cups and smaller plates, you would be able to reduce your food intake while satisfying your brain that you have eaten enough!

Avoid Salty Snacks

The untimely urge to have snacks can really hurt your pledge to lose weight. You can curb your urge to eat salty snacks by making yourself work to get them. For instance, if your stomach starts to grumble and starts asking for salty snacks then make sure that you would have to walk down to a super store to get them. Don’t ever stock them at your home. The work you would need to put it to get the snacks would most likely put you off. In case your urge is too much and you decide to go to super store, such a long walk would obviously help so much that a small snack won’t hurt that much!

Consider Vegetables and Fruits Your Only Lifeline

Incorporating vegetables and fruits would really help you in losing weight. While most women believe that cutting down on the food intake helps you lose weight, adding fruits and vegetables which contain vitamins and minerals and aid in food digestion actually disprove this theory. So, if you really want to lose weight, you should increase your intake of vegetables and fruits.

Give Yourself a Cheat Day

A cheat day is a day when you can eat whatever you want. The cheat day would be something to look forward to and would thus help you in concentrating on not trying the same unhealthy junk food on any other day.

Water. Water. And More Water.

Our water intake is not nearly enough and we mostly end up drinking beverages to end our thirst for water. And beverages often prove counterproductive. So, if you really want to lose weight then you should drink as much water as you can…somewhere around 12-16 glasses a day. If you can’t drink so much water then you can try fresh juices too.

Start Yoga

Yoga brings peace of mind and helps you exercise too. You won’t just workout a bit if you will start Yoga, you will gain self-control. And this self-control would go a long way into help you curb your urges to eat junk food.

Skip the Night-time meals

If you really want to skip a meal, it’s the night-time meal which should be skipped. If you cannot control your habit of eating between meals, it’s best to skip the night-time meal altogether. Reserve two nights each week for some of your favourite dishes and restaurants but on the other five nights, you then must skip the meal entirely.

Take Your Dog for a Walk

Taking your dog out for a walk is always a good idea because its enthusiasm to have a run would rub off on you and you would be compelled to follow. 10-20 minutes of walk each day can really work wonders for you and for your aim of losing weight.

Drink Green Tea

Green tea works wonders for the metabolism system and as a result, help you lose weight. Even though green tea won’t bring quick results, it would aid immensely in your fight against your over-weight body!
When You Eat, Concentrate on Eating
If you would concentrate on eating rather than on watching TV or on reading a newspaper or on browsing through Facebook, you will mostly end up eating more than you should. So, whenever you eat, concentrate on eating so that you don’t end up eating too much.

Top 10 Memory Improvement Tips


Pay attention and focus

When you are studying anything related with your studies then you must find a place where you are free from distractions. In this manner you will be able to pay attention on the study material and focus on the important points. You can choose any place for studies so that you can avoid disturbance and remember the important points of your studies.

Proper schedule

You must make proper schedule for your studies. There must be points to do in your schedule related with your studies. If you are not able to complete the points then you must not take stress and complete those points in next schedule. This process of studying with proper schedule will give you more time and chances for remembering and it will improve your memory.

Management of information

You must manage all the information in your mind in a proper manner. This will avoid mixing of information in your mind. When you are studying then give time for one subject then start the new subject and focus on it. Do not start and try to complete many subjects at a time. This will mix the materials. Focus on one point at a time and pay attention so that the information could be managed properly and you could remember it.

Mnemonic items as points

You can make mnemonics in order to remember points in your studies. Mnemonics are also helpful for remembering many other things in routine life. You can relate items in your studies with other points so that you could recall them when needed.

Revision and practice

When you have memorized a thing then you must revise it after some time period so that it could not be forgotten. Regular revision and practice of study material will help you to remember it and also improve your memory.

Relation among information

You must try to find relation among information. When you are studying information and relating it with other information in a logical manner then you are able to memorize it. Isolated information is forgotten and hard to remember. You can relate information with many points of your choice and recall and apply them when needed.

Visualization of concepts

You must find concepts in your studies. You must focus on concepts and relate then with real life examples. When you will check the practical application of your points in studies then you will be able to memorize it in a better way.

Teaching to others

You can teach the points in study to other people. Combined study is helpful for clearing many types of problems in concepts and helps in memorizing. You can discuss the points of difficulty with other students in your group and also give them details so that their concepts could be cleared. This will help in improved memory and long term remembering of points.

Focus on difficult points

When you find some points difficult in your studies then you must pay more attention to them. You must practice the hard points more as compared with easy points. Regular practice will eliminate the points of difficulty from hard points and you will memorize them for recall at any time.

Change study schedule

When you are finding it difficult to complete your studies in a given schedule then you must make some changes. These changes will improve the chances of getting more information and remembering it. You must be ready to make some changes in your study schedule and update it so that information could be studied and memory could be improved.

7 Amazing Wedding Invitation Tips

You are engaged! Now what? Follow these helpful wedding invitation tips to get the process started off right.

Begin with a Budget

Wedding invitations can be surprisingly expensive, before you get your heart set on a custom design, you will want to set a budget for yourself. There are endless options available today. Your invitations can be as dramatic or simple as you’d like.
Take the time to shop around. Look online, peruse catalogs, and visit stationary shops. Have your budget in mind while you browse. Don’t forget to take into account postage. Postage costs are not only dependent upon weight. The size and thickness of the envelope will affect the cost of postage too; so do your research.

What’s Your Style?

First impressions are everything. Your wedding invitations and/or save-the-date cards are your guests’ first glimpse into your wedding style. Whether you’ve chosen a grand black tie affair or a simplistic garden wedding, your invitations should match the tone. If you have set a color scheme for your wedding, incorporate it into your invitations. Your invitations set the stage for your wedding celebration.

What to include

Deciding on the wording for your inventions can be a challenge. Traditions and etiquette are constantly evolving. What your mother put on her invites is not necessarily the norm today. You need to find a balance between informing your guests and overcrowding the invitation. Be sure to include the names of the couple, the date, time and address of the ceremony and reception. RSVP information should be included. If you decide on enclosures, keep it simple. Numerous enclosures can be bulky and add costs.

Start Early

If you are using save-the-date cards they need to be ordered first. Try to plan on sending save-the-dates about six months prior to the big day. If you are planning a resort wedding that requires travel arrangements, send your save-the-dates even earlier to allow travel planning. Order your actual invitations three to four months early. You should be ready to mail them six to eight weeks before your wedding.

Proof it!

Proofing your invitations is one of the most important wedding invitation tips. The last thing you want is to send your invites with a grammatical or spelling error. Not only is it embarrassing, it can be a huge hassle if the incorrect information is sent. When your printer sends you the proof, email it to numerous trusted family and friends to ensure you don’t miss a thing.

Put It In a Package

Most printers have wedding packages. Usually these can save you quite a bit of money. See if you can find a package within your budget that includes the save-the-dates, invitations, inserts, RSVP cards, menu cards, and programs if necessary. Order extras! Printers will usually charge more if you have to order another set after the fact. Keep some extras on hand, just in case.

Thank you, Thank you

This wedding invitation tip will save you stress before and after the ceremony. No one wants to come home from your honeymoon to a huge stack of thank you notes that need to be written. When you write your guest list, transfer those names to a spreadsheet (or a notebook if you aren’t tech savvy). As the gifts start arriving make a note next to each name so you remember what they gave you. It is polite to include something about the gift in the text of the thank you. Mention it by name so the recipient knows you aren’t just sending blank thank you’s. If the gift was cash, or a gift card let the guest know how you plan on using it. It’s never too early to start your thank you notes.

Top 5 Sales Tips for Getting Success

Selling is an important task and many companies are looking for ways in order to increase their sales. There are many ways through which sales could be increased. Different professionals are using different modes for increasing sales. There are some tips which can be used for increasing the chances of sales. You can use the following tips at any time if you are working in the sales field. It is easy to use these tips and get instant results in the form of more sales and more commissions. You can use the following tips in online or offline markets for increasing sales.

Importance of thoughts of customers

In order to make sales you must know the thoughts of your customers. In some cases you are able to get information about the needs and demands of customers. Then you have to show them the desired things which are needed. If you are not sure about the demands of customers then you can ask them. If you see that customers are interested in a particular item then you can offer similar items to them so that they can get them and have benefits. You must understand the thoughts and actions of customers and guide them well so that they can purchase through you. Many people are looking to have purchases from internet but they are looking to have good guidance. Those people who are giving good guidance to customers are making a lot of sales. Many people are looking for information and feedbacks from sellers. Make sure that you are available for providing feedbacks to people so that they could purchase through you and result in benefits.

Give complete information to customers

When you are making a presentation for selling something then you must have complete information. Your message must be complete from start till end. If you have started a sales message but you are not aware of details for closing it effectively then it will not give good results. People are not willing to get incomplete messages. Complete messages are required by people so that they can take actions for getting desired items. It is easy to start the message for sales but you cannot complete it until you have complete information. You must search for the required information which is to be included in your messages and then you will have more chances of making sales. There are many sales messages which are started professionally but their closing is very bad. Due to this problem these messages are not working well and customers are not attracted. In order to attract customers it is important to have a complete message from start till end. This will guide the people well and they will understand the message and then work as per instructions.

Make proper schedule for working on sales

When you are working in the sales field then you must have proper schedules for many things involved in this process. It is not good to have a lot of promotion at one time and have little or no promotion at any other time. If you are working on one point related with sales and ignoring other points then your chances of success are reduced. In order to get sales and success you must work on a reliable schedule. You must make a list of things to be done related with your sales messages and work on them. Your schedule must be reasonable and achievable. You must also check the progress of your working from time to time. This will guide you about the results and making updates. Checking will give you information about the strengths and weaknesses in your sales programs. You can highlight and work on weak areas and use the strong areas for increasing sales. You will also need to make some changes in your working and schedules as per needs. You must have updated information about market sections in which your customers are present. This will help you to make proper schedules and include the required things for increasing sales.

Work with confidence to make sales

If you are selling something then you must have confidence and information about the items. If you have doubts about the items you are selling then your customers will not invest for getting them. Make sure that you have information and confidence in the items you are selling. With confidence you are able to present the items in an effective manner. If your messages are presenting doubts about the things you are selling then the customers will hesitate to check and invest to get them. Many people who are in the selling department are successful due to their confidence. Those people who are not confident about the items they are selling are not getting good results. If you know that the items are working well and can give benefits to customers then you can promote them for getting more sales. There are some benefits related with any item. Search for the benefits and promote them in order to attract customers for increasing sales.

Timely responses to customers

It is important to remain active and give responses for questions and queries of customers. When you are making a promotion related with a specific event then you must post on time and give enough chance to customers to have sales. Many items are launched in a certain time period and their duration is also related with a particular season so you must promote them on a timely manner. Many customers do some conversation before entering in a sales agreement. If you are starting a conversation and then disappear without completing the conversation then it will be bad. You must be ready to assist and give timely responses to customers who are looking for information about your items. This will give you confidence and trust of customers and they will invest in your items. Those sales professionals who are active and giving responses to questions and queries of customers are making more sales as compared with those sales professionals who are not active and giving no importance to feedbacks from customers.

7 Useful Blogging Tips for Online Success

Blogging is an extremely important part of the virtual world with people getting the chance to voice their opinions, share their thoughts and talk about their experiences with a worldwide audience. While many believe that blogging is all about doing whatever you feel best, in order to ensure that your blogging creates interest amongst your audience, makes you popular and generates revenue for you, you must follow a certain pattern.
Here are seven of the most useful blogging tips which will help you attain success in the virtual world.

Know the Reason for Your Blogging


While this may surprise a few, most bloggers don’t start a blog with any specific purpose but do it just because they feel like it. Most start a blog just to share their thoughts or put their writing talent on display to the world. However, if you take blogging seriously and want to succeed in it then you must know the main reason why you blog. This is because you can only measure your progress and success once you know where you wanted to succeed. People blog for generating traffic and earn revenue through ad publishers, blog to increase awareness about a topic, blog to increase their circle of interaction and blog to build relations with people with similar interests. Make sure that you know your reason for blogging and then make sure that you try and achieve success in it as well.

Guest Blog


Guest blogging is an extremely important aspect of blogging. The concept of guest blogging is to write posts for other blogs. It helps in a lot of ways. Firstly, it would help increase your interaction with fellow bloggers. Secondly, it would give you access to a whole new list of readers. Thirdly, you would be able to promote your blog a bit as well at the end of the guest blog.

Use Social Networking and Social Media Websites


Social Networking and social media websites are the best platforms for promoting your blog and its contents. Make sure to create a page for your blog as well as an account on Twitter and then promote it amongst your readers too to get it followed. In this manner, you would always retain your readers.

Diversify Your Content


Most bloggers make the mistake of keeping their blogs strictly text based. People can only read so much and if you want people to spend more time on your blog then you must diversify your content and prepare a few photo-based posts, couple of podcasts and some videos too. You can also share photos which have the potential of getting viral on social networking sites, share podcasts on websites like sound cloud and share the videos on YouTube. By diversifying your content, you won’t only be able to meet the requirements of a wide variety of people but would also give your blog a chance of getting popular through social media and video hosting websites.

Stay Consistent


Consistency is so important for blogging. If you won’t consistently update your blog, you would lose the interest of both your readers and the search-engines. So, whatever you do, make sure to upload content of any kind thrice a week.

Interview People with Success Stories in Your Niche


If you run out of ideas for posts, try and arrange an interview with someone who has an inspiring success story in your niche. People always love reading a success story and talking with such individuals would also give you new perspective on the topics that you write as well.

Incorporate Keywords into Your Titles and Content


Keywords are important if you want to get some traffic through search-engines as well. All you need to do is select a few keywords which would be relevant with your content and then incorporate them in your titles and content. You don’t need to stuff your content with too many keywords but you should at least put the keyword once in the title of your post and once within the content itself to get it optimised for search-engines.

10 Tips For Making Money Through a Home Based Business

Many types of businesses could be started at home. If you are looking to have a business based in your home then you must work hard and use the following tips for getting success. There are many options and you can start an online business or an offline business from home. Check the following tips and use them for starting a home based business which will help you to make money and become a professional in your field.

MAKE RELIABLE SCHEDULE

When you are working in home based business then you must follow a reasonable schedule. You have to work in your home based business and make a balance with your family and friends. Make sure that you are not ignoring your home based business and working well with your family and friends. You can make reliable schedules and do adjustments so that you can complete the needs of your business and your family.

MAKE A SEPARATE PLACE FOR WORKING

You must have a separate place for working in home based business. You can work in a separate room so that you can focus on the working and remain safe from distractions. First of all you must have a space in your home where you can work before launching the business. If you are not using a proper space then it would be hard for you to work and you will get a lot of troubles. Quality of home based business is also adversely affected if there is no proper place for working. Make a proper place for your home based business and work with care for getting good results.

HAVE A PROFESSIONAL ATTITUDE

You must work in a professional manner in your home based business for getting good results. Users of your products and services are expecting the same levels of quality which are offered elsewhere. You must make sure that you can handle the needs of users in your home based business. If you are not working well then your reputation will be adversely affected and your clients will not come back. For a long lasting relationship with your clients you must give them reliable services in their budget.

ADVERTISE YOUR BUSINESS

You must make sure that your business is advertised properly. You can use online and offline modes of advertisement so that people could get information about the business. When the awareness is increased then you are able to get more chances of sales and dealings. If you are not advertising your home based business then you have very little chances of dealings. Keep spreading the awareness about your home business and you will make a lot of sales and increase the number of your clients in a short time period. If you are working online then you can apply for many projects so that clients could check your profile and apply to get your services. Getting registration in online sites for home based business is not enough as there is a lot of competition. You must keep applying for projects so that you can have more chances of success and opportunities for getting hired. In case of offline working you can use posters and banners at the working place and at different places in the area so that people could be informed about your home business and get attracted for doing business and dealings.

CHECK APPLICABILITY OF TAXES

Different types of taxes are applicable to those people who are working in a home business. You must gain knowledge about these types of taxes and make sure that you are not making any errors. Negligence in case of applicable taxes could lead to different types of penalties and has a bad impression for your business. You can check the taxes which are applicable for your home business and pay them on time for remaining safe from penalties and continue your home business.

CHECK RULES IN YOUR ZONE

Different areas have different rules for home business. When you are working in your home as a professional, then you must check the rules and work accordingly. It is not good to breach any rules and regulations of any place while working in home based business in ignorance. Get knowledge about applicable laws and work as they say to have good results.

MAKE A PLAN FOR YOUR BUSINESS

You must have a reliable plan for your home based business. If you are working on internet then you must work with reliable sites and clients so that you can make money. You must keep applying for projects in your areas of expertise for getting more jobs and opportunities for making money. If you are selling offline then you must invest carefully to check the results. If the items are sold with high demand then you can invest in similar items and if the items are not sold then you must change the items for getting sales and profits.

MAKE ONLINE PRESENCE

You must have online presence in order to have success in your home based business. You can get online presence through your social sites. You can share information about your home based business with your social friends and followers so that they can come and deal with you. Your friends could also share with their friends and the process will result in a lot of exposure. You can also make a website or social page for your home business on which you can share important information and share it with your friends and followers on social sites.

SEARCH THE MARKET

You must search the market for checking the trends and opportunities in your niche. Different types of changes continue to take place in the market and these must be adopted for getting success. You must update the policies of working when some changes are highlighted in the market. This will help you to give the desired products and services to your clients from your home based business. When you are searching the market for getting updates then you can make reliable plans which will guide you to have more chances of success.

KEEP TRYING WITH COURAGE

Struggle is required in order to get success in home based business. When you are not seeing success in starting of your home business then you must not lose hope. You must try by updating the policies and plans so that you can have success. All types of businesses could be getting success if these are running with good plans. If your home business is not working well then your plans need to be updated and working must be reviews for elimination of errors. When you are making the required changes in your plans and working then you are able to get success in your home business.

Tuesday 27 January 2015

8 Scientifically Proven Ways To Increase Your Happiness

My earlier post, the pursuit of happiness (& how to be truly happy) was about living life by the moments rather than spending most of our time thinking about what we should achieve next. We can take charge of our happiness by choosing to engage in activities like physical exercise and performing acts of kindness to help us find happiness.

The good news is that there are also several other scientifically-proven activities which when done habitually, can help us in our quest for happiness. After looking through many of these suggestions which are supported by studies and experiments, I want to share the following 8 with you. Feel free to share your comments in the comments section below.

1. Practise Mindfulness

In a comprehensive research to study the level of happiness of 2250 participants, Harvard psychologists contacted the participants at random intervals during the day to find out the activity they were engaged in, their feelings and their thoughts.
The responses revealed that half of the time, the participants were not paying attention to what they were doing. Those who daydream, and thus are not concentrating at the task at hand, were reported to be less happy. It is this wandering of the mind that is causing them to be gloomy.
Rather than focusing at what was happening right at that instant – living in the moment – some of the sadder participants were thinking about the past or something that had yet to happen. The study is still ongoing, and you can participate here, if you have an iPhone.

Mindfulness Living

Mindfulness living is about living consciously, and according to Jon Kabat-Zinn, “theawareness that emerges through paying attention on purpose, in the present moment, and nonjudgmentally to the unfolding of experience moment by moment.”
The ability to concentrate well requires repeated practice. One way to do that is to practise mindfulness meditation: sitting down with our eyes closed and observing our physical sensations, thoughts, and emotions from a distant without judgment. Label them as an "itch", a "thought" or anger, for example, as they come and go in our consciousness.
When we can do this 20 minutes a day, often enough, we will start to realize that we are not our thoughts or emotions, and we will be less affected by them. That’s when we’re able to stay focused on what we do at any moment and become more present with our lives.
More: Apart from engaging in daily mindfulness meditation, here are 10 steps suggested by Reader’s Digest on how you can start living mindfully as well.

2. Have Sufficient Quality Sleep

Most of us are aware of the importance of sleep on our health. After all, it’s a fundamental "physiological" need under Maslow’s hierarchy. Yet, many of us are still stubbornly putting off going to bed early in the name of productivity. Some of us may actually consider "adequate sleep" as a luxury, thanks to our tight work schedules and project deadlines.
However, psychologist Norbert Schwarz from University of Michigan had found that getting just an extra hour of sleep every night will make you happier than earning a $60,000 raise for the year!
Considering how the lack of sleep can negatively affect our mood the following day, it perhaps makes more sense to get enough of it every day, become happier, and consequently increase our productivity at work.
But that doesn’t mean you need more of sleep. An analysis of the lifestyles of some 4,000 adults found that the happiest of the lot get an average of 6 hours 15 min of uninterrupted, quality sleep each night. According to another study by Cornell University, happy people tend to sleep better as well. It’s a loop: resolve to get more quality sleep, become happier, sleep even better!

3. Buy Some Experience

In my last post, I wrote that money is better spent on acquiring life experiences rather than for material possessions. Well, another study from Cornell University reaffirmed this, by proposing that acquired experiences are less tangible (compared to physical pursuits) and hence, harder to subject to social comparison. The result is that our happiness level doesn’t adapt to such personal experiences as quickly as we habituate to purchased goods.
Aside from strengthening social relationships, the experience also becomes more and more memorable as time passes. Our minds naturally reinterpret our experiences retrospectively and holistically in a positive manner. For instance, each time we revisit our cherished memories of the last vacation trip we took with family or friends, the hassles and frustrations experienced during the trip are conveniently forgotten.
So, go ahead and plan your next trip on some tropical island now. There is already research showing that the anticipation itself will give you a boost in your happiness, as mentioned by Elizabeth Dunn and Michael Norton, authors of Happy Money: The Science of Smarter Spending. They even found one study which pointed out that not only does delayed pleasure increases your excitement, it can even make it more pleasurable when you’re finally experiencing it.

4. Cut Down On Traveling Time

Previously, I have also mentioned that certain events in life could permanently lower our happiness baseline. Chronic long commutes are one such event. Harvard psychologist professor Daniel Gilbert puts it succinctly: "You can’t adapt to commuting, because it’s entirely unpredictable. Driving in traffic is a different kind of hell every day." No wonder daily commute has been ranked last among all daily activities.
A telephone survey conducted on about 170,000 employed adults showed that a third of those who took over 90 minutes to travel to work are more likely to have high cholesterol and chronic physical symptoms such as back and neck pains.
40% of the same group were also found to experience worry for most of the day, as compared to just 28% of those who commute to work in less than 10 minutes a day.
Before accepting a new job offer, take into account how much time you need to take to get to work each day. If, however, you’re already stuck in one which requires you to drive for an hour or more each day, you might want to consider other available means of commute. In Portland, Oregon, it was found that bicycle commuters are the happiest lot, followed by people who walk to work. Lone drivers are the least happy of all.

5. Smile!

According to one of the earliest research on the effects of smiling on our mood conducted by psychologist Robert Zajonc, who had participants say out the vowel "e" to make them smile, and the German vowel "ΓΌ" to make them pout. Those who "smiled" reportedly felt good while those who "pout" felt worse!
Numerous similar studies followed, with some claiming that smiling relieves stress and anxiety. Others such as Christopher Barnes from Michigan State University found that city bus drivers who "smile for the sake of smiling" throughout the day had their mood worsened and withdrew from work. The effects were found to be especially true for women.
When we smile, there are some biological processes that somehow trick our brain into thinking we’re happy. For this reason, our moods are lifted reflexively. Of course, this is just a brief intervention which is only effective momentarily and definitely not something that can make you happier as a person in the long run. Nevertheless, if doing something as simple as smiling could help us feel a wee bit better about our lives and get other people to smile as well, I don’t see why we shouldn’t do it more!

6. Get A Pet

Most pet owners would agree that their pets have brought them joy and good memories. Amazingly, researcher Allen McConnell has even found that social support provided by pets is comparable to that from a fellow family member. McConnell also showed that among other benefits, pet owners tend to have greater self-esteem, are less depressed and less lonely – they even exercise more!
However, don’t go rushing to buy one from the pet store if you know you’re using it as a substitute for your less-than-perfect social life. Further observations made by McConnell indicated that the effects of pets on our health and happiness are stronger when we are already having a good social life. After all, having a pet will not change things much unless we build a positive relationship with it.
If we are already on good terms with people we care about, it probably proves that we have the necessary traits to have good relationships with pets as well. It’s a two-way street: The amount of happiness that they can bring into our lives depend very much on our commitment level.

7. Know & Spend Time With Happy People

Happiness is contagious. The Framingham Heart Study that followed 4,700 people over 20 years revealed that a person’s happiness level can influence up to three degrees of separation, which means our happiness is partially affected by our social network (not the Facebook kind) of up to the level of our friends’ friends’ friends!
Specifically, we are 15.3% more likely to be happier when we know another happy person directly (1st degree), followed by 9.8% and 5.6% for 2nd and 3rd degrees respectively. Moreover, it was also found that physical distance matters, particularly when a friend of ours who resides within a mile from us becomes happy, the probability that we are happy increases by 25%. Interestingly though, such effects are not reflected between co-workers.
Happy people are often the center of social networks that comprises of similarly happy people. The reasons why positive emotions trickle down from the happiest people to others are not determined in the study, but it’s suggested that this group of people could have a tendency to be more generous, friendlier and nicer as a whole, cascading positive feelingsdown the levels and inducing those affected to act in the same positive manner to others.

8) Have At Least 10 Good Friends

We will first need to have at least 10 good friends before we can reach the minimum "happy" level. Surveying over 1,700 people on their satisfaction with their lives and their friendships, Dr Richard Tunney from Nottingham University found that those with 5 friends or fewer were more likely to be unhappy than to be happy. Those with 5 to 10 friends were equally likely to be either.
The good news is that the happiness of the participants did not depend on whether the friends they had were childhood friends or those that came into their lives much later. This mean to say that we’re never too late to make new friends to become happier!
Making new friends isn’t all to it though. If taking care of our pets requires commitment and continuous effort, friendship would logically requires much, much more. As Dr Tunney puts it, "Whatever the reason, actively working on friendships in the same way as to maintain a marriage is a prerequisite to happiness."
Having too many friends actually poses the danger of having "surface friendships" since it will be quite hard for one to maintain close relationships with all of them. If you are somehow able to find the time and means to manage them, you’ll probably be like the happiest participants in the study who had dozens of friends!