What makes you happy?
This blog asks ‘do you know what brings happiness to your life?’ and helps you to focus on the small things that bring you joy as a pathway to boosting your mental wellbeing.
Cheryl Taylor - LSBU Integrated Wellbeing Advisor and OfS Black Students Mental Health Project Officer
Sometimes, the mental health field can seem to focus solely on the things we want to move away from rather than on what we want to move towards. Blogs and posts cover topics such as coping with depression or anxiety and exploring what you can do about trauma.
Whilst these things are important, we can sometimes miss the wood for the trees. In this example, the trees are the occasions in our life and the wood is a life well lived. To have a life well lived, we need not only focus on the things that go wrong but, more importantly, look for those things that go right and bring joy and happiness into our lives.
Take a moment to reflect
The question is, do you know what brings happiness to your life? When was the last time you caught yourself being happy? Where were you? What were you doing? Who were you doing it with?
Spend a few moments right now thinking about where you were when you last felt happy, who you were with and what you were doing.
I was last happy when...
...was with me
We were...
Whilst we can all have fleeting moments of happiness every day, there is something to be said about savouring those moments. In the same way you might use a small spoon to eat your favourite dessert so you can savour the taste you enjoy or when you replay that favourite movie scene which elicits loud belly laughs. Reliving or savouring your happy moments can bring more happiness into your life.
Develop an attitude of gratitude
We have all had moments where we have relived a negative emotion simply by thinking about it. Well, the same is true for thinking about happy moments. It’s a bit like gratitude – the more you pay attention to the things that you are grateful for in your life, the more likely you are to develop an attitude of gratitude. If you pay more attention to the things that make you happy, you might just be surprised at how much more happiness you experience in your life overall.
To help you get started, write down five things that make you happy.
Useful Resources
- Black Minds Matter UK - charity organisation connecting black individuals and families with free mental health services
- Black River Counselling – culturally specific short-term counselling for black people by black counsellors and psychotherapists in Lambeth and Southwark
- Croydon BME Forum - provides mental health support to Croydon’s black and minority ethnic communities
- NHS Talking Therapies - free NHS psychological therapies to support people with common mental health problems like anxiety and depression
- The Empowerment Group (teg) - heavily subsidised online 1:1 culturally appropriate therapy for people of Black African and Caribbean heritage (please note that this is not a free service)
- The Black, African and Asian Therapy Network - the largest community of Counsellors and Psychotherapists of Black, African, Asian and Caribbean Heritage in the UK