Full Disclosure

All my life people have asked me how I stay so positive and cheerful. When I was younger I couldn't really give a solid answer. But as I’ve grown, I’ve had to become more intentional about maintaining those traits in life. After all, the older we get, the easier it is to become bogged down with cynicism about the world around us. I know that it’s impossible to be happy all the time, but I also know there are some things I can rely on to nudge myself more in the direction of happiness than despair. So without further to do, here are 5 ways to be happy - without embracing toxic positivity of course. Try to Unplug      These days it’s especially hard to disconnect. With gatherings still being largely limited and a lot of people still working from home, it’s easy to glance at the clock and realize you’ve spent the last 12 hours in front of a screen. But research has shown that spending too much time with your devices can cause neck strain, headaches, blurred vision, and disru...

     Last month, my dad invited me to a running group based on the Nike Run Club App. The  group does challenges every month and he convinced me to take part in the 30-mile challenge. This broke down into one mile per day, a seemingly easy “challenge” as far as they go. However, anyone who’s known me for much of my life can tell you that I’ve always been a sprinter in the most extreme sense. My middle school years are haunted by gym class mile times of 15 minutes and I can’t think of my brief stint on the track team without thinking about how it took me 90 seconds to run a 400 meter race during a tournament. Despite my misgivings, the lack of a gym had me ready to explore any and all forms of exercise and so I dove in.      The first two weeks of the month weren’t bad. I was running about 1 ½ miles each day and consistently clocking in at around 12 minutes per mile. I was proud to have come down to 12 minutes after starting off the first day of the mon...