HALEY KOLSETH//ERICA VENABLE

Life in general can be a stressful environment that fills you with a crippling inability to be happy. In honor of school being close to over, here are 20 ways to make yourself happy and relieve yourself of stress:

1. Cuddle with pets
   1. Animals have therapeutic qualities and can make you feel loved and zen.
2. Take your dog to a dog park
   1. There’s no better distraction than a bunch of happy dogs and this makes your dog happy too!
3. Get ice cream
   1. Sugar can be a great pick-me-up after a rough day, and since the weather is getting hot, it can be a warm and welcome cool down.
4. Go see a movie
   1. Sometimes sitting in the dark for two hours is exactly what you need to brighten up your mood. Even if the movie sucks, at least you got out of bed to go see it and that’s awesome in itself!
5. Go out to lunch with your friends
   1. Have some great laughs with some great food!
6. Eat comfort food
   1. Mashed potatoes, fried chicken and mac and cheese have a special place in my heart and will always change the mood of any bad day.
7. Start a new series on Netflix
   1. Get caught up in the characters’ lives to get away from yours for a little bit, while enjoying something that has nothing to do with the real world.
8. Blast music in the car and sing along at the top of your lungs
   1. Don’t know what music to play? Bored of your current music library? Here’s a Spotify playlist we started full of upbeat songs that are perfect for singing along to and boosting a bad mood.  Dang Life Is So Good 🙂 Spotify Playlist
9. Take a nap to refresh yourself and your mind
   1. For 30 minutes or for three hours, a nap is a great way to relax yourself and make you forget about stress.
10. Do yoga
    1. Stretch your body and center your mind around positivity. Yoga is a good way to release any built up tension that you may be feeling throughout the week and allows you to open your mind and feel relaxed and at peace
11. Take a walk through the park
    1. Sometimes it’s nice to be able to distract your mind with the sound of bird chirping, the fresh smell of the outdoors and the scenery that is Colorado.
12. Go on a long drive with your friends
    1. Roll down the car windows, blast your favorite songs on the radio and enjoy the world around you.
13. Go to the Denver or Cheyenne Mountain Zoo
    1. Lions and tigers and bears, oh my! Take a walk along some of the most exotic animals in Colorado and appreciate the world for creating so many beautiful creatures.
14. Look up cute baby animals on the Internet
    1. Baby dogs, baby giraffes, baby sloths, baby elephants, there’s an endless world of possibilities at your fingers when you enter the world of baby animals.
15. Write down everything you’re grateful for
    1. It might be three things or it might be 100, but you’ll realize how much you have to love and be happy about.
16. Stargaze
    1. The universe is a huge, beautiful frontier that mankind has only seen small portions of. Lay down on some blankets anywhere you like and appreciate the things the world has to offer you.
17. Go on a hike
    1. Fortunately, we live in Colorado, where there are so many beautiful places to go on hikes and admire the flora and fauna of our amazing state.
18. Volunteer
    1. Giving back to other people can be extremely rewarding, and making them smile and enjoy life can easily rub off on you.
19. Plant some flowers
    1. It’s finally spring! The long winter is over, and the birds are chirping. Go to the garden center at almost any store, pick out out a few flowers that are bright and uplifting, then plant them. Watch your garden and home come to life in front of you.
20. Smile more
    1. Watch a good movie, spend time with family or friends, read a good book. The possibilities are endless, but genuinely smiling and having fun will reduce your stress for even a brief period of time.
    2. Smiling naturally can boost your mood: Physcologists have found that if you are in a bad mood, you can instantly lift your spirits by naturally finding ways to get yourself to smile. Studies even show that smiling is contagious, so spread those good vibes to everyone around you!

The world is full of ugly, horrible things which can cause stress and anxiety to quickly overcome just about anyone, but school and work are almost over and summer is close to beginning. It’s important to not have the wave of negativity washed over you because there is so much to be happy and positive about.