Keep Smiling! Simple Tips To Help You Find Happiness Within Yourself

A pioneer in the alternative-medicine movement, Deepak Chopra started his career as a physician before expanding his focus to a more holistic and integrative approach to health, which led to the founding of the Chopra Center for Wellbeing in Carlsbad, Calif. Chopra has said that he believes humans can attain “perfect health” that is “free from disease, that never feels pain.”

The celebrity health guru has worked with A-listers like Elizabeth Taylor, Demi Moore and Madonna and has written dozens of books, including The Ultimate Happiness Prescription: 7 Keys to Joy and Enlightenment and The Spontaneous Fulfillment of Desire: Harnessing the Infinite Power of Coincidence. 

Here are Chopra’s tips on how to be happy and grateful and turn life’s hardships into opportunities.

“Our body expresses itself through signals of comfort and discomfort,” Chopra explained. “When choosing a certain behavior, ask your body ‘How do you feel about this?’ If your body sends a signal of physical or emotional distress, watch out. If your body sends a signal of comfort and eagerness, proceed.”

There is no time like the present, so take time to appreciate it. “Keep your attention on what is here and now; look for the fullness in every moment,” Chopra advised. “Accept what comes to you totally and completely so that you can appreciate it, learn from it and then let it go. The present is as it should be.”

Recognizing self-perception is crucial to better understanding yourself — and what you need in order to be truly happy. “The people you react to most strongly, whether with love or hate, are projections of your inner world,” Chopra shared. “What you most hate is what you most deny in yourself. What you most love is what you most wish for in yourself.”

Be mindful not to make judgments — about yourself or others. “You will feel much lighter,” Chopra noted. “Judgment imposes right and wrong on situations that just are. Everything can be understood and forgiven, but when you judge, you cut off understanding and shut down the process of learning to love. In judging others, you reflect your lack of self-acceptance.”

Looking to others for approval is a recipe for unhappiness, according to The Book of Secrets author. “You alone are the judge of your worth, and your goal is to discover infinite worth in yourself, no matter what anyone else thinks,” he explained. “There is great freedom in this realization.”

We only have one body, so it is important to treat it well and be cautious about what we put into it, “either through food, drink or toxic emotions,” Chopra said. “Your body is more than a life-support system. It is the vehicle that will carry you on the journey of your evolution. The health of every cell directly contributes to your state of well-being, because every cell is a point of awareness within the field of awareness that is you.”