There is no need to make drastic changes. Small changes have big effects.
Smile more
Smiling can make you feel better, but it’s more effective when you back it up with positive thoughts.
This is a tip to make yourself to smile when you just don’t feel like it. Take a straw and put it across your teeth and gently bit down on it. This forces your mouth muscles into a smiling position and this affects your mood.Keep smiling. It makes people wonder what you are up to.
Keep smiling. It makes people wonder what you are up to.
Exercise more
Do you think you don’t have time to exercise? Think again. Check out this seven-minute workout Regular exercise actually works as well as an antidepressant at relieving depression. It also reduces stress, and, of course, keeps you healthy.
Once you see results, it becomes an addiction.
Sleep more
Sleep helps your body recover from the day and repair itself and that it helps you focus and be more productive. It turns out sleep is also important for happiness.
Sleep is the best mediation. ~Dalai Lama
Spend more time with friends and family
Not staying in touch with friends and family is one of the top five regrets of the dying. Social time is highly valuable when it comes to improving your happiness and that also goes for introverts.
Home is where you treat friends like family and family like friends.
Go out in nature
Going out in nature has profoundly positive effects on your mood. Research has shown that spending 20 minutes outside in good weather not only boosts your mood, but broadens thinking and improves working memory.
Of all the paths you take in life, make sure a few of them are dirt. ~John Muir
Help other people
“There are now a plethora of data showing that when individuals engage in generous and altruistic behavior, they actually activate circuits in the brain that are key to fostering well-being.” ~Richard Davidson, founder of the Center for Healthy Minds at the University of Wisconsin
Plan a trip (even if you don’t ever take it)
As opposed to actually taking a holiday, simply planning a vacation or break from work can improve your happiness.
Collect moments not things.
Meditate
Meditation literally clears your mind and calms you down. It’s often been proven to be the single most effective way to live a happier life.
Mediation is listening to the divine within.<blockquote> ~Edgar Cayce
Practice gratitude
Counting your blessings is a workout for your brain. It makes it easier to be more positive and happy. Complaining has the opposite effect and makes you gloomy.
A moment in gratitude makes a difference in your attitude. ~Bruce Wilkinson
And the easiest tip of all: get older
Researchers have found that when older people are shown pictures of faces or situations they tend to focus on and remember the happier ones more and the negative ones less.
Today is the oldest you’ve ever been and the youngest you’ll ever be again.
Focus on the NOW
Paying careful attention to what you’re doing in the present moment boosts your well-being, and that includes doing the laundry or the dishes.
If not now, when? ~Eckhart Tolle
Be kind
The point of generosity is helping others, but according to a raft of research, lending a helping hand is also a huge happiness booster for the do-gooder.
You never know what someone is going through. Be kind. Always!
Connect
Humans are social animals, so it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that socializing makes us happier.
Connect, create meaning, make a difference, matter, be missed. ~Seth Godin
Limit social media
Connecting with friends in the physical is likely to boost your happiness, whereas passively browsing Facebook and other social-media sites gives you a distorted picture and increases envy and loneliness and decreases life satisfaction. Pay attention to how you consumer social media.
Don’t limit your challenges. Challenge your limits.
Tame your materialism
Craving more and better stuff seriously does not make you happier, but getting a handle on your materialism boost your well-being by consciously reflecting on your values. Keep a careful eye on your spending and turn away from advertising as much as possible.
Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted. ~Albert Einstein
Spend wisely
Just because materialism is bad for your mental health doesn’t mean spending money can make you happier. But to think that buying that bigger TV will have much of an effect on your mood for more than a few days has scientifically been proven wrong. However spending your money on experiences rather than stuff, can help you squeeze more joy out of your hard-earned cash.
It’s not your salaray that makes you rich, it’s your spending habits. ~Charles A. Jaffe
Trim your commute – Move closer to work
Sitting in traffic is next to no one’s idea of a good time.
Driving in traffic is a different kind of hell every day. ~Harvard psychologist Daniel Gilbert
