How to Be Happy This Year: 5 Tips to Finding Your Happiness Within

Happy 2020 Everyone! I’m back!

Wow… I can’t believe it’s been a year and a half since I’ve opened a fresh post to write on. Needless to say, a lot has happened to me since I took a step back from my blog in Summer 2018.

First of all, I want to thank each and every one of you who has stuck by my side and had my back through the ups and downs of the last year. Loyalty is everything to me and you all are the real ones. Second, I want to welcome everyone back to what is evolving into the new and improved version of The City Sidewalks! I am SUPER excited to be sharing all of my new projects with you in the upcoming year. More to come on that in a little bit…

So, where the hell have I been?

The short of it: I took some time off to deal with my mental health. I’ll admit that after moving to New York, I completely lost my footing. It had nothing to do with my surroundings, but rather my mindset and my mental health. I was suddenly overwhelmed with a lot of anxiety and depression that pushed me into a place where I didn’t even recognize myself anymore. It’s like change was happening all around me and I was stuck somewhere else. I lost myself. I became totally out of touch with the things that truly made me happy and was looking to anything to quickly fill that void. My life had become unmanageable.

A series of events in 2019 brought my life as I knew it to a screeching halt. At one moment in the Fall, I was faced with a situation that forced me to take a very honest look at myself and see who I had become. I was mentally in a very dark place and contemplating what my next steps should be. Have you ever had that feeling when you fall asleep somewhere after a night of drinking and you wake up the next morning wondering how you got there? That’s really the best way I can think of to describe how I felt in that moment. I was so confused as to how I had let myself get so far away from myself.

But strangely, through it all, I felt this calm, quiet voice inside of me telling me that everything was going to be OK and that everything was unfolding exactly as it should. I was sitting alone in a room, crying my eyes out, but also fully knowing that everything was happening for a reason to put me on the path I was really meant to be on. So I decided to pull myself up off the floor (literally) and strap myself in for what was about to be a magical ride. From that moment on, I dedicated every waking second I could to improving the only thing I had control over: MYSELF.

Shit, man… That was the best damn decision I could have ever made! In choosing me and my happiness as my top priority, it’s allowed me to step into this completely new space of alignment with the path I was always meant to be on. It’s opened the door to a new way of life that I hadn’t even dreamed of before. It’s allowed me to come to a graceful place of acceptance and gratitude of everything that I went through over the last few years and knowing it all happened for this greater purpose. I can honestly say that I am happier than I have ever been in my entire life and radiate with that joy every single day. And I know that it’s only going up from here!

My goal for this website in 2020 and beyond is to evolve the content that I create so that you can be inspired to dream, create, and live a life you’ve always wanted right alongside me while I do the same.

What you can expect to find on The City Sidewalks now is content that is focused on helping you live the life of your dreams by breaking through your limiting beliefs, doubts, and fears so you can own your power and manifest a life you love living EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. I’m dedicated to providing content that is based on the foundation of living from a positive mindset that can influence how you live your life, travel, take care of yourself, and manifest anything you want. There will still be lots of travel content, but it will be flawlessly intertwined with how to create a new mindset that allows you to deliberately manifest your dream life and all of the travel adventures that come along with it.

This year, you can expect more content coming to the website (just because I was offline doesn’t mean I wasn’t traveling!), my YouTube Channel, my first eBook, and a ton of free things being added to my Free Resource Library on a monthly basis. If you want to get on board and start learning how you can be the master creator of your reality, I suggest you subscribe to my newsletter now if you haven’t already because I have soooo much in the works for you ;)

Now that all those personal updates are out of the way, we can get to the meat and potatoes of this post! For my first post back, I believe it’s appropriate to start on a high note and discuss happiness. Happiness! How do we find it? How do we feel it? How do we keep it? It seems like such an elusive thing; but when you take a step back and realize that you’re actually in control of your own happiness, it can be a really powerful thing when you take back that control once and for all. When I was faced with my tough times, these were the tips that I used to shift my mindset to focus on the happiness that I was able to create:

Surrender and let go
A big step towards finding your happiness and shifting your mindset is to accept where you are in your journey, surrender, and let go of the illusion of control that you’ve been exerting. A lot of the control that we try to exert on a day-to-day basis comes from a place of lack of not having what we want and fear that we aren’t going to get what we want. Through the Law of Attraction, all this does is attract more of what you don’t want into your life. Learn to realize what you do actually have control over and let go of what you can’t control. Surrender to whatever current circumstances you’re experiencing and let the universe step in to do its job. Let go of trying to control what has already happened or what was already in motion and focus on the one thing you do have control over. Which brings me to my next point…
Realize what you do have control over
There is really only one thing that you have control over in your life: YOURSELF. You have the power to control your thoughts, your actions, your behaviors, your habits, your words, your feelings. All of it is in your control. After you finally learn to let go and release resistance, you start to get into the flow of energy that effortlessly allows anything you want to come to you. Realize that you are the only person you have control over and bask in that power. Stop caring about what other people are going to think. Stop caring about trying to control a situation that already happened. Stop caring about things that haven’t even happened yet. Take your power back and see that you have control over how you react and feel about anything that comes your way. Be more present in the moment and focus on yourself. You are the only one who is responsible for and in control of your happiness. Take that power and run with it!
Love yourself + STOP negative self-talk
This might be the tip that changed my life the most. When I began this journey back to myself, this was the key to feeling happiness in any moment. I started taking inventory of the thoughts that were running around in my mind. Wow, was this a wake-up call. There was SO MUCH negative self-talk going on in my head. It’s no wonder I was dealing with debilitating anxiety and depression on a daily basis. Constantly comparing myself to others, telling myself I looked a certain way, thinking I wasn’t good enough to do what I wanted to do. WTF?! Who gave these thoughts permission to run my life?! …I did… (the Chrissy Teigen meme would be great right here) As soon as I realized what was going on, it was like the kids were having a party and the parents finally came home and caught them. I decided to make a conscious effort to monitor my thoughts and immediately eliminate any form of negative self-talk that came across my awareness and switch it with the more positive or productive version. This took conscious effort for about one week and then started to become second nature. It completely changed my self-worth and self-image and allowed me to step into alignment with the person I wanted to be. Love yourself and go easy on yourself! We beat ourselves up way too much for no reason.
Do more of what you love
This seems so simple, yet we rarely make the time to actually do it. Doing the things that you love, that bring you joy, and that feed your soul are a quick way to happiness. It can be as simple as playing with your pet or as adventurous as skydiving. Whatever it is, make a list of the things you absolutely love and intend to do them. Schedule the time if you need to, but do more of what you love and you will instantly be happier.
Give gratitude for every moment
Gratitude is such an important key to happiness. The more you are grateful for what you have, the more you will have what you are grateful for. Gratitude is a quick way to raise your vibration and let the happiness flood into your life. Give gratitude for every single moment and experience in your life. Even if you’re feeling down/angry/shitty, know that there is something in your life to be grateful for and shift your focus to that. I now like to live by the phrase: “Everything happens for you, not to you.” This simple phrase has changed my life. If you start looking at anything you’re going through with that phrase in mind, it allows you to open up your heart to receive the lessons that are meant to be learned in order to move you to the next phase of your experience. There is always something to be grateful for!

When I was on my path to healing myself, I had a moment of clarity that shifted everything in my perspective. I realized how impactful this shift was on my personal experience and suddenly had an immense desire to share it with you all. I figured that if I could go from being at my lowest point in life and not having the desire to continue on, to doing a complete 180° shift and finding myself, my happiness, and learning how to take control of my life and manifest anything I want, then anyone else can do it too.

I felt inspired to create two things for you to start off the year to make it your best year yet. The first thing is my 30 Days of Self-Care Challenge, which you can get totally free by signing up for my Free Resource Library. These are tips that I used to start putting myself first and delving into the self-care that I needed. The second thing is my eBook, 30-Day Mindset Mastery Challenge, which are the steps that I used to get into this mindset and start creating the reality that I wanted to see unfold.

This challenge outlines the exact framework and steps that I took in order to help me:

Get through a painful breakup and heal myself in the process
Give up alcohol and other substances that were no longer serving me
Overcome and conquer my anxiety and depression
Find my passion and purpose in life and create a map to my dreams
Improve my relationships with family and friends
Attract more money and stability in my life
Create a healthier self-image and effortlessly lose weight
Live a happier life filled with only things that serve me
Let go of all fears, limiting beliefs, resistance, and doubts I had
Start to truly love myself and realize I had the power all along

You can buy the eBook right now and start the challenge, or you can read the first week for free in my Free Resource Library.

Thank you again to everyone who has stood by my side, had my back, and supported me through this journey. I’m so optimistic and excited for everything that is about to unfold in 2020 and cannot wait to share it with you!

—xx, Ana