According to Esther Ijewere, “Happiness relates to life satisfaction, appreciation of life, moments of pleasure, but overall it has to do with the positive experience of emotions. Happiness is the joy that we feel when we’re striving after our potential.” This was her submission as she was guest on Crux of the Matter Live Tweetchat session last Friday to discuss – Secrets to Staying Happy.

“Esther Ijewere is an enterprising social activist, youth advocate, Columnist, Author and the founder of Rubies Ink Initiative for Women and Children – A Non-profit outfit devoted to youth advocacy, development and social enterprise solutions amongst others.

Being an emerging young leader, Esther is the youngest recipient of The Idea Builders Women Mentoring Women Award, winning Mentee of the year 2010 and “Women Enterprise Award” from Vital Voices International & Exxon Mobil. She also won the award for “Best Use of Advocacy” from her Alma Mata; Olabisi Onabanjo University in 2012, for her contribution in fighting and creating awareness on Rape, In 2016 Esther bagged four awards for her platform Women of Rubies, notably among these award is “Young Person of the Year”

She is a Fellow with Vital Voices Global Leadership USA; an organization founded by Hillary Clinton and aimed at empowering young women change makers all over the world. She has toured several secondary schools, serving them counsel and sharing with them messages of hope for a greater life. One of her major interest is advocacy and counseling on issues surrounding women, child sexual abuse, family values, and youth empowerment.”

A “happy person” experiences the spectrum of emotions just like anybody else, but the frequency by which they experience the negative ones may differ. Here are 6 steps to staying happy as shared by Esther Ijewere;

1. Do what you like to do – Keeping in view the busy schedules, it is quite natural, that most of us tend to get lazy by the end of the day. So, the best way to be happy is to do what you like, for instance you could hit the gym, or join a dance class.

2. Head out, meet people– Do not just while away your weekends. Plan out short trips, or throw a party at home. Meeting new people, will relieve your tensions and anxiety, keeping your mind at peace

3. Talk to your loved ones – It is important to let out your problems in order to get a solution to it. Have nobody who will listen to you? Talk to God, he listens.

4. Ensure proper sleep cycles – I am bad at this myself, but it is very important to keep your mind balanced, in turn playing a big role in helping you to be happy. Sleeping properly will get you happy morning, and a good start of the day, is always a good sign.

5. Make a conscious decision to be happy no matter what life throws at you

6. Learn to love yourself, you deserve the love you give to the world. Be happy and do things that make you happy

Join us every Friday by 6/7pm on twitter with the hashtag #CruxoftheMatter for interesting and insightful conversations. Also watch Crux of the Matter on R2TV (GOTV 112) every Wednesday/Thursday at 9:30pm. Do follow me on twitter – @elsieisy