Over the past year and a half I've had some personal insights into my own personal happiness. I would agree that for me at least some modern day comforts tend to dull me down rather than fire me up. Here's a personal experiences:

- Netflix and TV -
I really love watching movies,and series. I've binge watched a crazy amount of Netflix TV series. At my worst I'd stay up until 3am on a binge, and would sometimes combine this with drinking whiskey. Doing so would interfere with my sleep, the alcohol would affect my mood within the next few days, and of course living this way means I'm not spending time on more productive or worthwhile activities.

These days I hardly ever watch TV, and instead of watching movies at home I like to go to the movies instead. It's much more enjoyable and makes watching movies feel more special.

- Coffee -
I tend to think of coffee as the equivalent of little kids drinking hot milk - except we're adults now and our hot milk has been combined with coffee. One thing I noticed drinking coffee is that the caffeine increased my general anxiety levels. Another thing I've noticed is that consuming lots of dairy products makes me feel a bit sick and yuck afterwards. So I switched to a combination of herbal tea and sometimes have decaf coffee - I did get some headaches after I did this, so would recommend slowly weaning yourself off caffeine rather than going cold turkey.

- Food in General -
A lot of food these day is made for convenience. Cereals, bread, high in sugar products etc. I've slowly been getting a more nutritious diet and cooking a lot more. As mentioned with coffee, milk makes me feel a bit sick after so I don't buy any kinds of milk anymore. Sugar is something I'm still working on and is super addictive (also non-dairy milk usually has ~10% sugar in it!), so I'm working on weaning myself off that as well. I find that having a better diet has allowed me to recognize more easily what foods make me feel yuck. I believe diet is huge in affecting how you feel.

- Exercise -
Intense exercise makes you feel sick when you first start doing it, but over time the sick feeling goes away and it can lead to a much healthier lifestyle and feeling better about yourself. If I eat something bad or drink alcohol on a Friday, during my intense Saturday workout I know instantly what I did wrong. Creating a routine out of this has helped change my behavior because on a Friday I will intentionally not do certain things in order to avoid the sick feeling on the Saturday. Not comfortable at all, but totally worth it.

- Sleep -
I've been working on getting to bed much earlier (around 9-9:30pm). It's a work in progress but I feel much better for it.

- Following your Dreams -
Over the past year I've sacrificed a cushy salary and tried new things to support my dream of being a successful entrepreneur. I spent thousands of dollars on courses, and had a crack at phone sales. It hasn't always been easy, but I'm proud of myself for giving it a go. I believe that a big reason for feelings of depression or anger in life is because we've forgotten our dreams, and aren't being true to ourselves. Recently I found the book Think and Grow Rich and have been reading that, and have also had friends that have been supporting me with their words and thoughts. In particular I have a friend I've made in recent years who is actively encouraging me, and I can tell you that having just one person that encourages you can make the world of difference.

- The Mind's Focus -
A work in progress for me is where I focus my mind. If I can actively do something to make a situation better, then I think of what action to take to improve that situation. If I'm unwilling to change that or if I'm powerless to do so then I do my best to let it go, or to remove myself from that situation. Sometimes this is difficult. Sometimes I have to take a big action, let people down, or there might be things I want to care about that I've realised just aren't worth spending the emotional energy on. This is a big one when it comes to comfort - it may be more comfortable not to step up and do something, but you're worse off for it.