There is hardly anything on earth that feels better than letting sunshine into your life, unfortunately it can be difficult to completely let go and let that sunshine in. Daily stresses, long term struggles, and the fear of the unknown all make it difficult to fully relax and let warmth and beauty into your life.
What does letting the sunshine into your life really look and feel like though?
It is easy to look out the window and see sunshine but it is a whole different feeling to go outside and truly appreciate the sunshine. This is true both literally and figuratively. Physically going outside and soaking up the sun has a huge benefit to your happiness, while making sure to soak up the good times has a similar effect.
Along those lines there are a number of steps you can take to truly let sunshine into your life and continue to feel happier on a daily basis.
Declutter Your Home
Clutter and “stuff” can cloud your physical and mental space leaving little room for sunshine. A great place to start when working to let sunshine in would be to clean up your space. Tidy everything up, clean out your closet, and in general open up more positive space in your home.
This newly organized space will not only make you feel more comfortable physically but it will help you maintain a clear and open mind. This clear and open mind will then allow you to truly appreciate sunshine in any form when you come across it.
Stop Stressing Over Perceived Flaws
It is easy to occupy valuable mental real estate with negative perceptions of yourself. This is very similar to having a cluttered living space, it doesn’t leave room for positivity and sunshine. While it is more difficult to eliminate your negative thoughts about yourself then it is to declutter a room it is still possible.
To fight off these negative thoughts you need to focus on what bothers you about yourself and remember that you notice it far more than other people do and that it does not affect how people feel about you. Take your time and remain patient while you work to accept and love how you think, look, and feel. You will notice that the more you accept yourself the more sunshine you will find in the world.
Forgive Yourself and Others
Holding onto anger and hostility towards your own actions or the actions of other people is yet another way to prevent sunshine from entering your life. Everyone has made mistakes of different calibers in their life but as long as you have moved on and learned from those mistakes then you are doing everything you can to be the best version of yourself. Coming to terms with this feeling will open up space for happiness in your life.
On the other hand forgiving other people can be awkward and time consuming. It is vital that you think critically about your relationship with those around you and decide if they are actively helping you let sunshine into your life or actively preventing sunshine from entering your life.
Sometimes a short conversation will clear up all of your issues, but other times you may have to make the choice to cut someone from your life so that you can be happier on a daily basis.
Unfortunately there is no cheat sheet to these relationships, you must follow your gut while prioritizing your own happiness.
Focus on Dreams
The future is full of uncertainty and that uncertainty can make it difficult to fully relax and soak up the sun. By focusing on hopes and dreams you have for the future instead of focusing on uncertainty you will find that everything around you becomes more positive.
Constantly thinking about worst case scenarios is both exhausting and counter intuitive, you should make sure you are prepared for setbacks, but you should not focus on what might go wrong. Instead you should think about how you want your future to look like, you will be amazed to see how many things you manifest come to fruition.
Quit Procrastinating
Constantly having a to do list in your life takes up valuable mental real estate and actively prevents you from being able to enjoy the sunshine that is all around you. Working to improve your time management skills will very quickly end with you feeling sunnier and more relaxed.
Avoiding procrastination looks differently for everyone, you just need to try different techniques to find what works best for you. Some people work best in the morning and choose to relax in the afternoon, other people like seeing a to-do list on their wall everyday to ensure they stay on top of things. It really doesn’t matter what you decide works best for you, just remember to leave time for rest and relaxation after you finish your work.
Don’t focus On Being Right
Always focusing on being “right” in conversations and arguments with your loved ones is yet another way you can prevent sunshine from coming into your life. If you are constantly fighting battles with those around you you will have trouble finding the positives in everyday life.
To start fighting less you should stop and breathe during discussions, think about what the most productive outcome of that conversation will be and try to get to that point instead of getting hung up on small details.
You will be amazed at how petty many of things you initially wanted to fight about seem when you take a second to think about them. The lack of fighting and increased communication will lead you to sharing more sunshine with those closest to you, which in the end is the entire point of friendships, relationships, and partners.
Let The Sunshine In
While a lot of the advice about letting sunshine into your life is detailed and rather specific you must remember that it all hinges on yourself and how you handle yourself. By simply focusing on letting sunshine into your life you will find yourself feeling healthier and happier immediately.
Now go out into the world and find all of the sunshine you can.
