My 30 Tips:
- View the photos of my niece, Ashley and Beverley
- Do 10 minutes mindfulness exercise
- Go for a swim
- Go for a walk by the Marina Bay
- Open my financial planning and check my balances
- Write my diary
- Go to bed and sleep 10 hours, things always feel better in the morning
- Go for a cardio - treadmill run, outdoor, body balance, or gentle yoga
- Smell something good
- Eat delicious food with wonderful wine
- Read some of my poetry collection that Edrina sent me
- Go hiking
- Make myself a hot caffeine-free tea
- Allow myself time to do something totally useless like playing clicker game
- Make plan for the future: plan a trip, plan a brunch with friend, checkout an investment
- Reminisce about my happy moments, my area of refuge. When Handy got married. When mom and dad accompany me to Sydney for my surgery. When we took a family holiday to Maldives. When we saw the majestic Manta-ray. When I attended bizapp party in bright blue dress at Bellagio.
Her list is the following:
- Do ten jumping jacks.
- Go outside and look at the sky.
- Pet my dog Barnaby. Then…
- Text a photo of Barnaby to my family.
- Re-read a few chapters of a children’s or YA book in a series I love: Graceling, Harry Potter, Narnia, Melendy Quartet, etc.
- Enjoy a beautiful smell.
- Do a small good deed for someone else.
- Clear some clutter (I can always find some).
- Look for a beautiful color in my surroundings.
- Call my sister Elizabeth.
- Take a minute to be grateful for some basic aspect of my life: elevators, space heaters, Wikipedia.
- Send a family update (to learn more about “update,” listen to episode 2 of the Happier podcast).
- Clean off my desk.
- Copy some quotations into my giant trove of quotations.
- Look at my TimeHop app.
- Make sure I’m not cold, hot, thirsty, hungry, need to go to the bathroom, or experiencing mild discomfort: in other words, treat myself like a toddler.
- Re-copy my to-do list, so it’s fresh and clean.
- Go to the library.
- Watch an episode of The Office (American version).
- Make the positive argument.
- Randomly read a few pages of Virginia Woolf’s A Writer’s Diary.
- Make myself a cup of coffee.
- Make a plan for some future fun: plan an outing, make a date with a friend, add a book to my library list.
- Re-read Winston Churchill’s eulogy for Neville Chamberlain.
- Tackle some small, nagging task that’s been weighing on my mind.
- Move with more energy, put a smile on my face. When I act happier, I’ll feel happier.
- Plan to go to bed early. I always feel better in the morning.
- Hug a member of my family (whoever’s available).
- Allow myself to do some quick research on a subject that has been fascinating me, but is unrelated to my work.
- Listen to Nina Simone sing “Feeling Good.”
