How to Live a Happier Life: 20 Simple, Effective Ways

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how to live a happier life

We all have our moments of bliss and joy. However, these moments are usually short-lived, and we are plagued with negative emotions. We are stuck in this loop often. 

So, how to find long-term happiness? The path to pure happiness lies within our core values, which are reflected in everything we do. We need to live authentically and in the present moment. Of course, this won’t happen overnight because cultivating happiness requires practice. 

We have shared 20 tips on how to be a happy individual, discovering the secrets of living a fulfilled and joyful life.

How Can You Be Happy? 20 Tips You Must Try

Here are the must-try tips on how to live a happier life. 

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1. Get Enough Sleep

Sound and sufficient sleep not only keeps you fresh and active throughout the day but also helps you recover from a day’s activities. An adult needs a minimum of 7 hours of sleep every night. So, whenever your body feels tired, and you feel the urge to take a nap, even during the day, it means your body and mind want to rest. 

Sleep is often taken for granted in this modern society, but an adequate amount of sleep every day is necessary to keep your mind and body healthy and functional. It ensures overall well-being, reduces stress, and eliminates the chances of chronic illnesses, such as depression, heart disease, and diabetes. 

Make a sleep routine that aligns with your work schedule, planning sleeping and waking up time, and stick to it. Once you start getting plenty of sleep, you will feel more positive emotions, such as happiness, joy, and contentment. 

If you are struggling with sleep, here are a few tips that will help you follow a better routine:

  • Try to sleep and wake up at the same time every day.
  • Get some good bedding for quality sleep.
  • Track the total hours of sleep you get every night and how relaxed you feel. 
  • Limit your naps to 20 minutes.
  • Sleep in a quiet, dark, and cool environment.
  • Have a quiet time every day before you go to sleep to read, relax, take a bath, etc.
  • Avoid heavy eating or drinking just before sleeping.
  • Consider talking to a therapist or health expert if you are constantly struggling with your sleep. 

2. Develop Positive Perspective

If you want to find long-term and real happiness, you need to stay away from negative thoughts and build a positive mindset. Create positive affirmations and repeat them to boost your self-esteem and develop positive thinking. Spend 2-5 minutes every day to look for positive things in your life and counter negative thoughts. You will automatically develop a positive outlook and feel happier. 

Another tip on how to live happier is to identify your care values and consistently repeat positive affirmations. The longer you practice it, the more improvement you will feel within yourself. 

Choose one positive mantra every day. For example, ‘I am thankful for everything I have’ or ‘I have a beautiful life.’ Repeat it constantly, especially when things go south, and you will start seeing things in a positive light. If you can change even 1% of your thoughts in a day, you can transform your life for the better. 

Also Read: How to Find Peace of Mind and Happiness? Expert Guide

3. Maintain Work-Life Balance

Your work consumes more than half of your day, but that’s not an ideal way to live a happy life. You need to maintain a work-life balance so you can spend quality time with your family and pursue activities and interests beyond your job. 

Have a hobby, socialize, meet your friends or new people, exercise, and create a balance in your life to reduce stress and anxiety caused due to work pressure. When you have the right balance between your professional and personal life, you find better ways to express yourself and enjoy your life. 

4. Eat Nutritious Food

You are what you eat. So, if you eat healthy and nutrient-rich meals, you stay fit and happier. Your food choices can greatly influence your mental and physical health, so pay attention to what you eat in a day. Include food items that boost your mood and keep you fit and active. 

Eat salads, fruits, green vegetables, and healthy meals to increase your overall happiness. Studies have proved that the Western diet includes more refined and processed foods, whereas Mediterranean foods are healthy and have lower risks of depression. 

Try to cut down on your sugar consumption, and you will see a profound effect on your health, happiness, and overall well-being. Add as many colors as possible to your plate, with plenty of nutritious vegetables and fruits. 

Here are a few tips to help you plan a healthy diet:

  • Fried or processed foods can make you feel lazy and depressed, so skip consuming them daily.
  • Keep sugar to a minimum because it creates a short-term energy surge, and you can crash. Complex carbs like beans, vegetables, and whole grains can help you avoid a crash and provide serotonin, a feel-good hormone. 
  • Eat what you like and enjoy, but it must be healthy and have high nutrient value.

5. Write a Journal

Are you wondering, “how can I live happily”?  Then journaling can be your go-to solution. Keeping a journal can help you access your feelings, organize your thoughts, declutter your mind, and manage your stress. It allows you to be your own therapist and can help you work through things when you feel down in the dumps. 

When you pen down your emotions and feelings, you realize that things assumed to be a big deal are nothing. You think rationally and start focusing on solutions rather than the problem. 

The best part is you don’t have to be a literary genius to write a journal. Keep it simple, allowing yourself to pour down your thoughts without any restriction before you go to bed. There is no structure to follow; it’s just your effort to do it that counts. You can also find a specific place or time that suits you. 

Prefer writing a journal every day, but don’t try to achieve perfection. It’s your safe place where you can be anything and everything. Don’t force yourself; do it only when you feel like doing it to get the most out of it. 

6. Practice Mindfulness

Mindfulness means to be aware and attentive to the present moment. You acknowledge all the things you feel and sense without any judgment. You notice your emotions, accept them, and realize how it feels to be a part of the world around you. 

Practicing mindfulness makes you more aware, curious, and present. Meditation is the most effective way to bring mindfulness into your life. Yoga is also useful as it teaches you to take a pause from your fast-paced life, focus on your present, and experience every moment. 

You start accepting the problems in your life and everything that you are going through. You see the situation and life for what they are and find peace and affirmation within. 

Mindfulness enables you to access emotions like gratitude, empowerment, and wholeness. You can practice it any time of the day for 10-15 minutes. 

7. Live in the Moment

More often than not, we are consumed by thoughts of the past or future. We are either concerned or scared about the future or fret about things that happened in the past. 

Amidst this to and fro between past and future, we forget to focus on the present moment and what we are experiencing now. That can hugely impact our happiness and perspective. 

Therefore, try to engage yourself in your life and stay in the present. Accept things as they are, live every moment, and you will develop a deeper appreciation for everything you have.  

Also Read: How to Find Yourself? Guide to Discovering Yourself

8. Try Deep Breathing

When you feel tense, your shoulders feel tight, and you think as if you might lose it, it’s time to take a few long deep breaths to calm yourself down. Don’t let negative thoughts overpower your mind. 

Many people want to know how to live a life of happiness, but they forget that the answer lies within. You need to control your mind, and deep breathing is an effective way to achieve this. It helps reduce stress and anxiety while relaxing your mind and body. 

So, whenever you feel at your wit’s end, close your eyes and environ all the happy moments and your happy place. Start breathing slowly through your mouth or nose. Take slow and deep breaths, and repeat the process 5-7 times. You will start feeling better and calmer. You can also try counting to 5 in your head while inhaling and exhaling. 

9. Develop a Growth Mindset

Life is full of challenges and obstacles that might get you down. However, when you have a growth mindset, you overcome all the problems. Therefore, shift your mindset to be resilient. It equips you to adapt according to circumstances and be victorious, no matter how tough life gets. 

With a growth mindset, you start seeing your failures as an opportunity rather than a threat. You embrace your weaknesses and mistakes, making efforts to learn and evolve. Moreover, overcoming a challenge teaches you important life lessons, gain insights into different perspectives, and become a better person. 

So, try new things and keep an open mind to have new experiences and make your life more interesting.

10. Cultivate Gratitude

Expressing your gratitude gives you a big boost and makes you appreciate every small thing in life. Therefore, find ways to cultivate gratitude daily for everything you have. It will develop a feeling of hope and happiness, and you will feel more content. 

When you express gratitude, you appreciate what you have received in life. It includes tangible and intangible gifts. Every day, acknowledge one thing you have in life. Do this before going to bed or soon after you wake up. When you acknowledge good things in your life, you start seeing more goodness around you, making you happier. 

When you go out for work, notice everything that makes you happy or brings a smile to your face. Look for pleasant things, and you will become aware of positivity around you. You will soon feel anxiety, sadness, and depression fading away from your life. 

11. Do Things You Enjoy

If you want to know how to live with happiness, you must do things you enjoy and love. These are the best years of your life, so don’t waste them complaining about your work or relationship. Take time from your busy schedule to pursue your hobby and add a smile to your life. 

Set aside 1-2 hours daily to do fun and amusing activities. Do things you are passionate about and that make you feel alive. You can even try activities that gave you immense pleasure and happiness as a kid. For example, reading, cycling, enjoying sunrise or sunset, cooking, watching movies, etc. 

One way to find more joy in your life is by becoming aware of places, people, and things that make you happy and then incorporating them into your daily life. Build a career that you have always dreamed of to get a high level of satisfaction and mental peace, and soon, your happiness will know no limit. 

12. Don’t Compare Yourself with Others

Whether it’s the workplace, social media, or family, we always fall prey to constantly comparing ourselves with others. We start finding flaws in us and feel insecure, which develops an inferiority complex. Hence, you experience disconnect, depression, and lower self-esteem.

Stop scrolling social media frequently because it can develop negative emotions and lead to resentment and envy. It takes constant practice to stop comparing yourself, but once mastered, it can bring inner happiness and peace, which are most valuable. 

Also Read: How to Overcome Death Anxiety? Symptoms, Causes, Scale

13. Practice Meditation

When you meditate, your subconscious mind brings you from the sympathetic to the parasympathetic mode of your nervous system. This calms you down, and you feel happier and more relaxed. You start looking at your life with more joy and happiness. 

You can try different meditation techniques, such as focus, spirituality, movement, or a combination of two or three methods. Keep it simple in the beginning. You can just sit in a quiet place with your own thoughts and take a few deep breaths. Later, you can try different poses or asanas to seek more benefits. 

14. Build Genuine Relationships

Love, happiness, companionship, and community all go hand-in-hand. Without supportive people, we feel lonely and depressed. So, when you talk about how to live life happy, it’s important that you surround yourself with supportive friends and people. 

Humans need to feel they belong and are loved. This is possible when we meet like-minded people, interact and connect with them, and build strong relationships. We seek a supportive tribe to support and understand us. When you have positive people in your life who are with you through thick and thin, it can work wonders for your mental peace and happiness. 

When we face challenges, support, and encouragement from these people can help us bounce back. We adopt a positive outlook and learn to be more kind and compassionate toward ourselves and others. 

15. Meet Your Friends and Family

As humans, we are social beings, and our social relationships can greatly impact our mood and happiness. So, reach out to your friends and plan a dinner night or a fun games night. 

Remember, it’s not about how many friends you have but having meaningful and genuine relationships. Meet friends and family with whom you can share your happiness, problems, and experiences. Get involved in a volunteer group, reading club, or yoga class. Companionship is not limited to humans. You can find happiness and a true friend in your pets. Adopt a pet if you like; it will give you joy you can’t imagine. 

16. Set Realistic Goals

We all want goals in life that motivate and inspire us at every step. However, it’s crucial to have realistic and achievable goals that can be attained within the planned time. This will give you direction in life, and you can make an effort to achieve them. 

Break your big goals into small goals and focus on one target at a time. Whenever you achieve a goal, it releases a feel-good hormone, and you will feel positive and good about yourself. 

Although goals should be realistic, you will get a sense of satisfaction and achievement when you work hard for them. So, don’t settle for less or easy targets. Be willing to put in your best efforts. You know your true potential, so set higher aims, create patterns around these goals, leave no stone unturned, and soon you will achieve more than you thought. 

Also Read: How to Improve Mental Health? Expert Tips

17. Celebrate Small Victories

I am sure you have a to-do list that consists of ample tasks. There might be a few things that have already been checked. No matter if you have ticked only a few things, give yourself a pat on the back and celebrate small victories. 

Life is full of ups and downs. So, the biggest secret to how to live life happier is taking a moment to bask in the glory of every small accomplishment. Don’t let these little achievements go unnoticed. You have made efforts for these successes, too. So, celebrate these small wins and feel good about yourself. 

Yes, it can easily get embarrassing to celebrate small victories, but that doesn’t matter. Don’t compare yourself with others; just love yourself and appreciate your efforts. 

18. Invest Time in Self Care

I know you have thousands of things to do every day. However, that doesn’t mean you start neglecting your well-being. This is a fast-paced world, but you need to take 15 minutes every day for self-care. 

Pamper and nurture yourself. This is as important as caring for your dreams, passions, thoughts, and other responsibilities. Unwind after a hectic day at work by taking a hot bath, practicing yoga, following a skin-care routine, or watching a movie in one go. Make time for yourself, mention it in your planner, and prioritize it. 

19. Accept Imperfections

We always chase perfection and push ourselves way too much. But we forget that perfection is an illusion. If you strive for perfection, you can never be happy even when you reach your goals.

So, to be happy in a true sense, embrace imperfections. Stop finding flaws in everything. Don’t hold yourself and others to these impossible standards because you will feel disappointed. Accept that life is imperfect, and you must find beauty in that imperfection.

20. Engage with Nature

Spend at least 10 minutes a day outdoors in a park or around nature, appreciating nature and engaging with it. This small activity can not only lower blood pressure but also reduce stress. It can unleash a happier person within you and connect you with nature. 

When you spend time in green space, be it your backyard, park, or neighborhood garden, you enjoy nature and fresh air, contributing to a happier outlook. You feel healthier and more active. You can even exercise, read, trek, meditate, and journal while spending time outdoors.  

FAQs- How to Live a Happy Life

How can we be happy even when life is hard?

Hardships are a part of life, and you must make constant efforts to find happiness amidst challenges. Try activities that relax your mind and body, avoid social media, connect with friends and family, share with your partner, nurture your relationships and exercise. These are the proven ways to find happiness even in the most difficult times. 

Why does happiness matter?

Happiness is a feeling that signifies you are enjoying life and want to make the best out of it. Here are a few reasons why happiness can work wonders:
– It motivates us to reach our goals.
– It makes people live longer.
– Happy people are more successful.
– They learn better.
– They are healthier.
– They build better relationships.

How can I enjoy life more?

You need to take small steps to enjoy life to its fullest. 
– Exercise and meditate
– Express gratitude
– Take enough sleep
– Meet people
– Find small victories 
– Nurture positive relationships
– Set achievable goals

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Conclusion

Everyone’s version of happiness is different, and so is their path to achieving it. So, cultivate healthy habits that suit your lifestyle. Stay consistent and invest time to practice to find what works for you. Rest assured, you will feel real happiness soon. 

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