These Good Habits Can Help You Live a Happier Life
Good Habits Lead to Happiness
What is happiness?
According to Sonja Lyubomirsky in her 2007 book, “The How of Happiness,” “the experience of joy, contentment, or positive well-being, combined with a sense that one’s life is good, meaningful, and worthwhile.”
Throughout her book, Lyubomirsky expounds on how to have a happier life by dissecting the psychology of happiness.
Everyone wants to know how to be happy. Unfortunately, happiness isn’t something that you can just flip a switch and experience. If that were possible, wouldn’t we all keep our happy switch in the “on” position>?
While there have long been discussions about how “happiness is a choice,” and finding things that “spark joy” in your life, it’s often difficult to know where to start.
However, psychologists, psychiatrists, and other experts have discovered some good habits that happy people tend to share. If you’re looking for some ways to be happier, implement these good habits starting today.
Happy People Form Friendships
Forming friendships is among the most common good habits that make people happier. Life is meant to be shared with other people.
Unfortunately, we live in a time when isolation is prevalent. You need only to look back to the COVID-19 pandemic to find a major shift in the way that humans interact with others.
Most adults spend at least 40 hours each week at work. During this time, it’s natural for you to find coworkers who share some common interests with you, and friendships typically form from a point of common interest.
Unfortunately, when remote work became the “new normal,” many people lost their primary source of social interaction. To make matters worse, gyms closed, as did restaurants, movie theaters, and other areas where people could stay connected with others, leaving us connected only by our phones.
Over the years, countless research studies have shown that the most effective way to experience more happiness is to spend quality time with others. If you live in relative isolation, start trying to form some meaningful bonds with other people, and happiness will follow.
Happy People Smile
This one almost seems too basic to be helpful, doesn’t it?
Of course, happy people smile. Smiling is the most common non-verbal method of expressing happiness. However, while we typically assume that happiness causes smiling, researchers believe that the opposite is true, too.
When you smile, your brain releases something called dopamine. This chemical is often referred to as “the happiness chemical.” Dopamine triggers the pleasure centers in your brain, and you feel happier when you smile. This is why people find themselves dealing with “giggle fits” from time to time.
This does not mean that you plaster a phony smile on your face and walk around acting like everything is fine, even when you’re dealing with personal issues.
Doing so actually makes things worse. However, it does mean that you make a conscious decision to find something to smile about when you don’t feel like smiling. You don’t have to forget about what’s bothering you. You need to process those things.
But if you’re having a rough day, find something that brings a smile to your face and spend a few minutes focusing on that.
Happy People Exercise
We have known for years that exercise provides physical benefits. It’s been shown to help with weight loss, lower blood pressure, improve joint pain, and so much more. However, exercise has also been proven to help people feel happier, and the reasoning is multilayered.
First of all, when you feel better physically, you’ll feel better physically. If you’ve ever suffered some sort of injury or illness that left you unable to be as active as you usually are, you know the mental ramifications of feeling stuck.
Over time, physical impairment, whether it’s injury or illness, leads to a lack of happiness. Since exercise improves your physical health, it also improves your mental health.
However, exercise doesn’t only lead to happiness because it makes your body feel better. Exercise has been shown to reduce stress and anxiety while boosting feelings of productivity and self-esteem.
This doesn’t mean that you need to join a gym and start a daily workout routine. That’s certainly fine if that’s the route you want to take, but pursuing happiness through exercise is as easy as adopting a few, easy-to-follow habits.
Something as easy as walking around your block every evening after dinner or starting your day with a five-minute stretching exercise can help improve your levels of happiness.
Happy People Exhibit Gratitude
Being thankful and exhibiting gratitude have been proven to release dopamine, reduce your stress levels, and positively impact your general disposition. Developing an attitude of gratitude isn’t something that happens by accident, but then again, most habits aren’t.
Instead, gratitude involves actively looking for things that you’re thankful for. If someone does something kind for you, it’s easy to thank them. However, when you’re feeling overwhelmed by stress and other external factors, it’s not always easy to be thankful.
There are different ways that you can go about this. If you feel like you need a bit of structure on your journey to find more happiness, consider starting a gratitude journal. Challenge yourself to write down three things that you’re grateful for every day.
If you don’t need that amount of structure on this quest, just make it a point to think about some things that you’re thankful for. They don’t even have to be “big” things. Be grateful for some nice weather, light traffic, or any of the things that you may have considered mundane in the past.
Happy People Sleep
In a time when many people feel like they don’t have time to do all the things they need to get done every day, sleep tends to be one of the first things that we sacrifice in the name of productivity.
However, doing so doesn’t only leave you feeling tired, it can also deprive you of your happiness. If you’ve ever had a restless night that saw you wake up multiple times, you’re already aware of how cranky and irritable it can leave you feeling when you get up for the day.
If a lack of sleep can make you grumpy, shouldn’t sufficient sleep make you happy?
It can certainly help. Scientists agree that adults need around seven hours of sleep each night. If you consistently get less than this, you may find yourself craving caffeine, taking naps, and just feeling tired throughout the day. This is your body’s way of telling you that it needs more rest.
Getting enough sleep has also been proven to help the body fight off many illnesses, as it gives your immune system a chance to fight things off while you’re resting.
People who get more sleep are more focused, more productive, and generally feel like being more physically active. Since all of those things are tied directly to happiness, getting enough sleep is an important habit to develop.
Happy People Acknowledge Unhappiness
Shouldn’t one of the keys to happiness involve ignoring the things that make us unhappy so we can focus more on the things that bring happiness? Not at all.
Acknowledging sources of unhappiness is one of the most important habits that make you happier. As humans, we have a natural tendency to pursue self-sufficiency.
It’s a trait that goes back to the very dawn of time when people went out to hunt or grow their own food. We like to think that we’re strong enough to push everything that’s bothering us out of our minds. We often assume that ignoring those things is the same thing as overcoming them when that’s not the case at all.
Acknowledging the things that cause unhappiness is an important part of dealing with them in a healthy manner.
If there’s something in your life that is a constant source of unhappiness, acknowledging it allows you to start looking for ways to either change it or eliminate it from your life. Pretending to be happy is not happiness.
Remember, the habit of smiling isn’t about putting a fake smile on your face; it’s about finding something to genuinely smile about. Establish a habit of recognizing triggers of unhappiness so you can take healthy, constructive steps toward overcoming them.
Happy People Avoid Comparison
Finally, avoiding comparison is a crucial habit to develop if you want to live a happier life. It’s also one of the most difficult habits to form. This is largely because our society relies so heavily on social media.
Many experts agree that putting down your cell phone is one of the most important habits for those who wonder how to live a happier life. Since most of our cell phone usage revolves around social media, the two are tightly linked.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with social media. It’s an effective tool for professional and personal relationships and allows people to connect with others from around the world. It’s also something that most people use to show the greatest moments of their lives.
Again, there’s nothing wrong with that. If you’ve been on a vacation, there’s nothing wrong with sharing pictures.
If you’ve gotten good news about your career, it’s fine to share that. The important thing is to avoid comparing your life to the lives of people in your social network.
Everyone else is sharing their best moments on their social media platforms. No matter how hard we try, every day isn’t a highlight reel. Some days are harder than others.
Some days will require more work to find something to smile about or to be grateful for. When you’re having one of those tough days, don’t compare yourself to other people who are sharing their best moments.
Additionally, avoid comparing yourself to others even when things are going well. It’s incredibly easy to fall into the trap of thinking your best moments aren’t as good as someone else’s.
If you’re looking for habits that will make you happier, avoiding comparison is perhaps the most important one to add.
Adopt These Good Habits
If only it were that easy. Hardships are a part of life, but the presence of difficulty does not have to mean the absence of happiness.
While there’s not some magic switch that you can flip to turn on happiness in your life, these habits can help you achieve more happiness.
Take the time to commit to implementing these habits. It won’t happen immediately, but adopting these habits that make people happier will have a positive impact on your life.