5 Ways to Create More Joy in Your Life

Sometimes we just need a little boost of joy in our lives! These are 5 little things that make me feel happy and I wanted to share them with you. I am not a therapist and these are just what works for me. If you need professional help I really encourage you to do that.

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Introduction 

Hi, everyone. Welcome back to the Wanderlover podcast. I’m your host, Danielle Hu. I am just in such a good mood today. I put in an order for a custom longboard. So for those of you who have been listening to this show, you’ll know that I’ve been spending the past four months in Batukaras Indonesia because of the surf here. And at the beginning of the year, I created a vision board where I wanted to be able to hang 10 and buy myself, a custom long board to further improve my surfing. I talked to a shaper in Bali, and he is going to be shaping me my first ever custom long board! I designed the pattern on InDesign, so I opened up my iPad. I was like, I want flowers on it. I got inspiration from so many other surfers and other people’s boards that I liked, and I put together a design, and it’s gonna come in around three to four weeks, so hopefully by the first or second week of November it’ll be here.

And I cannot wait to show all of you If. You don’t follow me already. Make sure you’re following @thewanderlover so you can see my board when I get it. I also booked flights back to New York for the holidays, so I will be leaving here in December and then coming back in January. 

Why I wanted to talk about happiness today

It’s going to be such an incredible few months, and I’m just constantly overflowing with joy, which brings me to today’s podcast, Episode; FIve Ways to Create More Joy in Your Life. I felt really called to record this because one of my friends from home actually asked me, she was like, Danielle, how are you so happy all the time? Like, why are you always smiling and laughing? Not in a way that was triggering, but she truly, genuinely wanted to know why I was so happy.

And also recently, I’ve been having some conversations with friends from back home, some ex-coworkers I used to work with in corporate finance who are still at their jobs. And the conversations all centered around being overworked by their employers, not feeling fulfilled, not knowing what they’re doing with their life, and some topics around anti-depressants, different drugs that help you with sleep. So we were talking about melatonin and other things that they were trying so that they could sleep more and enjoy their lives more. And having these conversations is such a contrast from my day to day life traveling or here in Basu, Kas, Indonesia, the topics of depression or anti-depressants or being overworked by your employers.

They never, never, never come up. But I remember when I was in that space, these were the conversations I was always having with people. So I’m very familiar, but in this case, in the past few weeks when I’ve been having these conversations, it’s just such a huge contrast and coupled with, you know, some questions about how I’m always so happy, I just really wanted to share my thoughts in hopes that whoever’s listening, if you’re listening and you want to incorporate more joy into your life, you are able to do so. You feel inspired to take action. You feel inspired to prioritize your joy. And if we’re all happy, the world is a happier place, right?

So if you’re listening, I hope this episode resonates with you, and I really hope I can influence the amount of joy in your life. Some of my clients, funnily enough, they call me also a life coach. They’re like, Wow, Danielle, I signed up for business coaching with you and you’re helping me make money. But I’m also seeing so many other aspects of my life improve because of our time together. They’re able to have healthier relationships, they’re able to travel, they’re able to fund all the activities that they want, all the things that they want to buy and their quality of life and happiness just increase as a byproduct of working with me. And like I always say, who you hang out with is who you become so If, you’re constantly spending time with me.

If you’re constantly spending time in this energy of my community where people are traveling feeling free, they experience time freedom, location freedom, financial freedom, and their standard of living is just so, so high, then how can you not be happier? Right? I am not a therapist by any means. So If, you really need help. Go find someone, a licensed professional who is able to help you in that capacity. Know that you have the power to change your thoughts and change your reality. If, you need help seek it. If, you are listening to this episode and you’re in a pretty good state of mind, and you just want more inspiration, more ways to incorporate joy to live a happier life than this episode is for you.

Giving yourself permission

The first way to create more joy in your life, and this is the overarching theme, is to give yourself permission to enjoy the present moment without feeling guilt. This is going to take practice, but first of all, it’s going to take awareness that you’re doing it in the first place. Raise your hand. How many times have you been in a beautiful location or in a really peaceful place? Maybe you were hanging out with friends, maybe you were enjoying time with family and your thoughts just sabotage the entire situation. You couldn’t be present. You found a way to make yourself feel guilty about what you weren’t doing about X, Y, and Z, and all of those thoughts basically just ruined your experience because you couldn’t be present.

Has that happened to you? If so, you are not alone. So many of my clients have a tendency to be overachievers and to constantly be thinking that they need to be quote unquote productive. And this mentality will not get you far because it robs you of happiness, and that is the precise happiness that’s going to propel your business and your life forward, right? If you’re not giving yourself permission to enjoy life, you’re not gonna feel motivated to work. To show up on social media, to grow your business, you need to get rid of those thoughts that are keeping you from happiness. I recently had a client, she was traveling all through Europe and every single new location.

There was this guilt that she didn’t accomplish enough, that she didn’t do enough while she was traveling, and that the business was not growing. However, when you look at your life in its entirety, you’re not going to remember the work you didn’t do. You’re only going to remember the present moment and the experiences and the joy and spending it with the people you love. So when this happens, the first thing you wanna do is to identify the thought, identify what is triggering or tainting the present moment, and then recognize that it is not serving you. What is serving you is an alternate thought. Instead of thinking of the worst case scenario, start thinking about the best case scenario.

Maybe the thought is, Oh, I’m supposed to be recording a YouTube video today, but instead I’m going on a boat trip or I’m going surfing If. You have this thought and you are prioritizing your joy. You will then shift that narrative to another scenario. The best case scenario, which is cool, I’m getting content today for my weekly newsletter, and I can take photos and videos to grow my brand while I’m there, and I get to do something really fun and grow my business and spend time with friends at the same time. Right? Like, how much happier would you feel in the present moment? If, you were able to catch that thought and change it before it ruins your mood, right?

So give yourself permission to experience joy because If, you don’t, Then there’s no point in listening to this episode because even If, you wanted to experience joy. You wouldn’t be able to fully experience it because your mind just continuously talks you out of it. So we’re going to practice being guilt free and another exercise that might help If. You constantly have this inner nagging voice that’s making you feel like you’re not good enough or you’re not being productive enough or whatever. It’s really helpful to give her or him a name and just recognize when they are intruding on your thoughts. So you can call her negative Nancy or Gilda or whatever persona you think they embody and separate yourself from those thoughts.

Listing what makes you happy 

Okay, second way to create more joy in your life is to make a list of every single thing that makes you happy. And this can be as small as you know, pink little pink hearts on post-it notes to really big things like achieving a goal or getting a national press feature. Or what I have on mine is I love getting my nails done. I love getting my eyelashes done and FaceTiming my friends and family. Make a list of every single thing that lights you up and go do them every single day.

So this paired with allowing yourself to fully enjoy what you enjoy without guilt, the more you do things that make you happy, the happier you’re going to feel. If, you want to bring, dump with me and just share with me 10, 20, 30 things that bring you joy. Feel free to DM them to me. I would love to have a conversation with you about them. And I just love knowing what brings people joy. We are all such unique beings, and some things are just so worth sharing because you never know how it can positively impact someone else. In my community, we tend to love travel. We love adventure. We love experiencing new things.

We love being around new people, trying new foods, learning new skills, learning new languages. And when you are able to really list all of these out and honor them and do them every day, or maybe even do it for life, do it for a living. This is how you can create a happy, aligned life. That’s ultimately how I ended up in the position I am in today. I was like, I want to quit my job because that’s no longer serving me. I know I want to travel full time. I know I want to live abroad and experience new things and not be in this nine to five corporate lifestyle.

So when I was able to identify and then took actions to make that my reality 24 7, 365 days a year like that is why I am the happy person I am today. I always joke like If, you had met me when I was working in corporate. I was just such a different person. I felt like I had so many limiting beliefs about why I couldn’t do things, why I needed to work in this job. And If, you don’t know my full story, If, you don’t know the mindset I had back then versus the mindset I have now. I have a free case study from zero to six, Figures now multiple six Figures, but you can learn step by step what I changed in my life to make my current reality, my reality.

Set boundaries

Okay. Third tip is to set boundaries with yourself, your relationships, and your time. This means saying no to things that don’t align with who you are. Saying no to things that aren’t immediately a hell yes. Saying no to things that aren’t serving you, and getting rid of all of those things while at the same time, incorporating those things on your list that make you a happier person. This reminds me of the quote, When a flower doesn’t blossom, you change the environment, not the flower. And it’s just so apparent when I look at people’s lives back in New York City where they’re working jobs that they don’t feel aligned or fulfilled in, and they’re being overworked.

They’re getting into the office at like seven in the morning and then leaving at eight or 9:00 PM at night, just spending all day in a cubicle. Like it’s so apparent that because there is a lack of boundary with their time, with their relationships with themselves, that they experience feelings of loneliness, of dread, of negative thoughts and emotions, right? Versus If, you were spending your days traveling, doing what you love, going surfing every day, meeting new people, hanging out with friends, feeling successful in your business, making a lot of money, like those are going to be the things that create this fulfilling, happy, joyful life.

And this, this looks different for everyone, right? Which is why the previous exercise, when you start listing out everything that makes you happy, that brings you joy, it’s going to look different for you. Maybe you really want a family. Maybe you really wanna settle down and have a loving home that you can take care of. Maybe you love baking and you wanna start your own bakery and spend your life doing something that you love. Honoring these moments is what is going to lead you to the increased joy that you are looking for. I guarantee you also setting boundaries with your relationships. People that no longer bring you joy, spend less time with them.

People who do bring you joy, spend more time with them, right? It’s simple. There’s no reason to hold on to relationships that aren’t making you feel 110%. You deserve so much better. You deserve so much happiness. So let’s take back control. Let’s take back our own happiness. Setting boundaries with your time. This can look like working with clients, not over extending yourself to clients or people. For me, this also looks like taking direct flights. Whenever I can, I will upgrade my seats whenever I can because that is what brings me joy, and I’m honoring that.

Setting boundaries also goes hand in hand with really holding yourself to your work. So If, you tell yourself, I’m going to focus on my joy. I’m gonna do what’s making me happier. Commit to that, right? You don’t want to not be able to trust yourself. You really want to take the actions to make everything I said in this episode come true. 

Commit to a fun new hobby or activity

Next way to create more joy in your life is to start a project or activity and commit to mastering it, right? Don’t just try it for a few days, but give yourself achievable, attainable goals in a year, in three years, in five years. And once you achieve those goals, which will come with a lot of perseverance, a lot of practice, you’re going to feel increased self-confidence.

You’re gonna feel like you’ve achieved something, you’re gonna feel all of these emotions that come with joy. And personally, this is what I do with surfing, with longboarding. I really commit to this because it makes me feel like I’m improving, Like I’m growing this for you can look like maybe you wanted to start your own garden, or you wanted to grow your own vegetables, or you wanted to build a treehouse or host an event in London. Buy a camera and start taking photos. This might be something that came up first when I told you to make a list of all the things that bring you joy and make you happy. But whatever you have been wanting to do or wanting to try, let’s go out.

Take action and try them. We’re not going to wait until the perfect time or until we feel like we’re ready. We need to take action right now. And believe me, you’re gonna feel so good when you take that first step. 

Focus on your own path

Finally, last but not least, my tip to create more joy in your life is to focus on your own path. Whenever you get distracted by what someone else is doing, by what other people are, how other people are living their lives, that may or may not be in alignment with yours, it does not matter. Because what matters is how much you are enjoying your own life in front of you.

Sometimes this looks like gossiping less, right? Like talking about other people less and talking about what your goals are to yourself. More talking about your goals with mentors, with the community of people who are working to improve themselves and improve their joy. Your outer world is a reflection of your inner world. And so if we can direct all the attention back to ourselves and how we can take action to make our lives 1% better every single day, you are going to be so happy. There’s gonna be absolutely nothing robbing you of your joy. And I guarantee you, in a month’s time and a year’s time, people are going to ask you, why are you so happy all the time?

What is your secret? How do you do it? So I hope this episode was helpful. These are honestly the things that I really prioritize, that I intentionally make a habit out of day to day, so that my life is free flowing. It’s constantly growing. I’m constantly attracting new people in my community who resonate with this, who want to be happier people. And this is just the greatest mission, right? The greatest thing to be able to spread joy and fulfillment to people around the world. If, you have any questions about this? If, you would like to have a conversation about this, please DM me @thewanderlover. If you’ve enjoyed this episode, I’d love it if you could take a screenshot and add it to your stories. I would love to hear your thoughts and connect with you. I hope you have a fantastic week. I will see you in the next episodes of my loves.