10 Ways To Be Unhappy

What stands in the way of you and a contented life? Identifying your obstacles is the first step to overcoming them.

- Wendy Stelzmann

WHEN was the last time you felt really, truly happy? What was it about that moment that made you feel so content?

Wherever and whenever it was, one thing’s for sure: you were probably fully in the moment. You weren’t worrying about tomorrow, you weren’t complaining about anything and you weren’t scrolling through a friend’s Instagram posts and thinking your life is boring by comparison.

That’s because worry, complaining and comparing your self with others are all sure-fire roads to unhappiness. Many of us subconsciously do things that make us unhappy and they might even have become a habit. If so, it’s time to break them.

As you gear up for 2017, check out this list of the top 10 ways to be unhappy to see which happiness obstacles you bump into most often.

1 COMPARE YOURSELF WITH OTHERS 

“If you want to be unhappy, the best way to do it is to constantly compare yourself with others and judge yourself as inferior,” Cape Town clinical psychologist Kim Foster says.

This is a particularly easy trap to fall into now that we see so much about other people’s lives on social media, where everyone seems to be richer, smarter, thinner or having more fun.

“We emphasise what they have and exaggerate what we lack,” Foster says. “We forget that we’re all human. We all have doubts and worries just like we all have hopes and dreams.”

The only comparing you should do is to ask yourself if you’re a better person than you were yesterday, last week or last year.

2 WORRY ABOUT WHAT IFS