35 Ways To Be Happy And Live A Happier Life

Sometimes the harshness of life can bring you down and leave you in a pit of despair for months on end. Grief, relationships, money problems, jobs can all cause us to become depressed, anxious and left feeling lost in our lives.

Too often we get stuck in these cycles and don’t start to do the things that could bring us a sense of happiness again. Depending on what you’re going through, there are little things you can do to make yourself happy again or at least start to heal any emotional pain.

If you’re not a naturally optimistic person, I’ve found that happiness is something that needs to be practised, just like a habit. Seeing the good in all situations does not come naturally to me and so I have to consciously look for the good.

Developing this habit over time will give you the opportunity to feel happier in different situations and it all starts with small, everyday things.

Here are some ways to make you happy from my personal experience in day to day life.

35 Ways To Be Happy (or at least happier)

1. Sort that thing out that making you anxious. Whether it’s paying a bill or talking to someone about something if there’s something you can sort out now then just do it and get it out of the way.
2. In the same regard, if you can’t deal with something right away and have to wait then just let it go. Realise you can’t solve it right now but you will when you can.
3. Another way to be happy is to let yourself make mistakes. We beat ourselves up for not being perfect but the only way to get to where we want to be is to make mistakes along the way.
4. Release all resentment. When we carry grudges around with us tey can bol into a toxic soup. We may not realise it but they infect our mood subconsciously.
5. Forgive that person. If someone has hurt you it can be tempting to ignore them as a form of revenge. Like resentment, it’s important to forgive that person eventually. It puts you in a better place when you have nothing like that hanging over you.
6. Remove bullshit attachments that are weighing you down. You might love your new trainers but if they cost you $90 when you couldn’t afford them to begin with, you’re simply going to cause yourself distress when you can’t pay essentials like bills.
7. Give. Give to someone who needs it. Selflessness is a brilliant way to make yourself happy. Not in a self-serving way but when you can appreciate that some people could use a hand and you help them, it’s like a hug around your soul.
8. Go outside, even when it’s raining. It’s no secret that we spend too much time in urban environments when we’re built for natural ones.
9. A simple way to make yourself happy is to exercise. After all, we’re animals that need to move flex and stretch.
10. Quit that shitty job and try something new. Much of my unhappiness as an adult has been caused by work. I’ve moved around jobs until I’ve found something that I enjoy. This can be scary, especially when you’ve been at a job for so long but only when you do it you realise that you are worth more to different people.
11. Speak your god damn mind, even at the risk of offending others. When you sit inside your mind and never really truly express what’s in your mind not only can you end up in undesirable situations but you end up living a life of unhappiness as all your decisions get made for you.
12. Remove garbage relationships. Not just partners but friends too. If the people around you make you feel pulled down, it could be time to stand up for what you deserve and move onto people who respect you for you.
13. Wake up when you wake up. Instead of staying in bed until 1 pm doing bugger all, why not read a book, go for a walk or do something that brings you happiness?
14. Educate yourself. Learning has been a great experience for me. Yes, I hated school, but only until I started learning about things I was interested in did I start to enjoy learning. I had been learning all the things that brought me no joy. Now I get excited about learning things that interest me.
15. Do hobbies. Or at least try some. There’s an endless amount of things you could try. Probability would dictate that we go through life never doing certain things that we would be amazing at. When I engage in my hobbies I get a sense of feeling that I’m doing exactly what I should be doing in that moment.
16. Laugh like no one is watching. Tray watching a funny film or breading a funny book. When I feel sad I wanna be sad, yes. However, in that state, I can see something that makes me laugh and it snaps me right out of that place.
17. Play. When you’re a child you doing nothing but play and learn. As you get older you have to restrict your playtime. A balance between responsibility and play is vital though. You don’t want to just be a stick in the mud grown up, do you? Never having fun or playing?
18. Try new things. Why not try something new, you might end up enjoying it. It can also break up the mundaneness of daily life.
19. Consider getting yourself a pet. Dogs, for example, have shown to increase happiness by large margins in those who own and live with them.
20. Try getting more sleep. It’s no secret that lack of sleep can make you grumpier let alone release the stress hormone cortisol. Try giving yourself an earlier bedtime if you find you currently stay up late.
21. Keep a journal. Keeping a journal could make you happier as it allows you to give structure to your thoughts, releasing them in a physical form.
22. Forget what others think. So much sadness can come from worrying about what other people think of you. Don’t worry about their thoughts, you can’t control them and it’s also not your business to know anyway.
23. Declutter you junk. A messy house can result in a messy mind let alone stress from having clutter everywhere. Clear your space and you’ll feel 10x times happier.
24. Make sure you still seeing people. Loneliness can be dangerous and has been shown to be detrimental to your health. Whilst depression, for example, can leave you indoors by yourself, it’s essential to keep relationships going and have some human contact, no matter how small.
25. Put your damn phone down. Stop looking at everyone else’s lives on Facebook and live your own. There’s nothing much worse than compare and despair in this day and age.
26. Consider a therapist. There may be things within you that you don’t realise are bringing you down. These guys are trained at bringing those things out of you so you can deal with them.
27. Meditate. Meditation offers different things to different people but generally, it is useful for relaxation and deep thought. At the same time, it can be used to declutter your thoughts and put you into a quiet state, something rare these days.
28. Show your gratitude. Gratitude, or intentional gratitude, allows you to consciously appreciate the good things in your life. It’s a great habit because it can help you to see the ‘silver lining’ in different situations in your life.
29. Tell someone. Tell someone how appreciated they are. This is basically gratitude again but it deserves its own number. How often do you stop and tell people this?
30. Take a break. Get away from your usual surroundings for a few days. Take a long weekend break and go somewhere that no one knows you.
31. Another way to be happy ‘in the moment’ is to learn how to breathe properly. Yes, you might think that you know how to already but there is such a thing as deep breathing that can naturally relieve stress.
32. Smile more. Even when you don’t feel like it, give it a go, you might just feel better.
33. Listen more. Instead of talking and injecting your opinion, ask someone to tell you their story and experience what they have to say. This could enhance your sense of self-awareness and could then make you feel happier.
34. Accept your flaws. By doing this you’ll get an honest understanding of what you can improve. Then you can start to work on those things and thus, you may find you’re happier.
35. Give your life some structure. Start making plans and planning out your free time. Instead of sitting around bored, have a plan to do some activities that you enjoy.

Happiness is a place between too much and too little.

Finnish proverb

To achieve happiness there has to be a balance in life. Between work and play the scale has to be level. For example, some people live their lives for excess, thinking that ‘more’ will make them happy.

In reality, less is usually more, and just above ‘less’ is usually a place of contentment.

Different things make different happy but by using these small daily happiness habits you’ll be sure to find yourself smiling more and feeling better within your skin.