New year, time to be a newer you.

It's time for new resolutions to be made. The common stigma with new years resolutions is that they don't matter because no one follows theirs through, I challenge you to break that stigma. Step out of your comfort zone, actively work on your goals you set. Don't let depression, other people, or fear stand in the way of who you want to be.

I have compiled a list of ideas on how to work towards living a happier life, as follows:

1. Declutter your life and live simpler.

Sometimes living with notes all over the floor, under-watered plants, and knick-knacks absorbing your life doesn't have the most calming affect.

2. Own your stuff.

Acknowledge that you aren't living the exact life you want to be living and be willing to change it.

3. Spend less than one hour a day on social media.

When you are trying to improve your life and see things like how happy all of your facebook friends are, or how unhappy they all are, it can bring you back to your starting point.

**Leads to having more time to spend on things that can make you happy like art, traveling, spending time with loved ones, appreciating animals/ life.*

4. Replace what you take out of your savings, x2.

Being financially stable is always a comforting feeling.

**Ease of mind is one of the most important steps in taking control of your life. Always having mass amounts of stress can be harmful to your health and mental health.**

5. Put yourself first.

Take personal time daily. This can be anything like reading a magazine, taking extra time in the morning getting ready, turning your phone off for one hour, etc.

**You are the most person in your life.**

6. Go on a 30 minute walk once a day.

Boosting mental health is very important in helping mental health.

7. Thank one person weekly for something they have done for you or someone else, (this person can be yourself).

Life is short and it is important to let people know what they mean to you while you can. Lives change quicker than we anticipate; friends have children, friends leave for college, siblings grow up, people move away.

**The best time to say something that can change someone's day is now.**

8. Self care

Everyone gets sad and doesn't want to do anything, including take care of themselves, sometimes. You have to stand tall anyways and keep going.

**You ARE strong enough and you ARE enough.**

9. Remove toxic people from your life, no matter how much they once meant to you.

This person can look different for each person. Maybe this is a friend, significant other, employer, parent, etc. No one deserves to be abused mentally or/ and physically. The situation you are in is not your fault, you deserve to reach out for help. Depending on your geographical location, there are various hotlines you can call, councelors to reach out to, crisis text hotlines. All of those resources are one google search away.

**The most important thing someone can have over you is the power of deciding your life for you. You are strong enough to walk away from the things you don't deserve in life.**

You are strong enough to chose happiness.

10. Find somewhere that you can be happy and go there as often as you are able, (whether this is physically or mentally).

This can be anything from a place you would like to visit to a scene you like to picture when you meditate. Find somewhere that you feel like you can really be yourself and see things clearly.

11. Do something different in your life every now and again.

This doesn't mean go climb a mountain or go deep sea diving. It can be simple like finding a new hobby, going on a drive/ walk to somewhere new, make friends with someone you wouldn't normally befriend, listen to a new artist, go look at a monument, watch a documentary on something you don't know much about., look at a different style of art than you usually see.

**It's easy to fall in the same routine in life, take a step out of it every so often.**

12. Spread a little more optimism in the world.

Do volunteer work, recycle, say nice things to your friends, bake a treat for your friends/ neighbors/ family, extend help to those you are able to. The millineal generation gets so caught up on social media cites that we don't spend enough time outwardly appreciating the world around us.

**We get so focused on tweeting or finding something worth posting on the gram that we forget to appreciate the moment sometimes.**

13. Find one thing a month that you would like to change for the better about yourself/ your life/ the world around you.

This doesn't mean make a list of everything you don't like about yourself and become a different person. This means if you feel like you waste too much time inside, take a step outside. If you feel like you don't have a lot of friends, try to reach out and make a few more. If you feel like the world is too full or war and destruction, take time to share your opinion about that and bond with others.

If you don't like the life you are living, there is no better time to change it than now. You don't have to take rash and immediate actions to try to be happier, sometimes that isn't a feasible course of action. Sometimes you just need to stay up late and watch that movie, or eat that last slice of cake, and that's okay.

Sometimes the best thing you can do, is acknowledge that you aren't happy and decide what you would like to do about it.

If you have anything to add to my list, please feel free to add in the comments.