How To Find Happiness Every Day

This is the second post in the How To Find Happiness series. The first is How To Find Happiness In 5 Minutes and the third post is How to Find Happiness That Lasts.

Finding happiness every day is a simple matter of forming habits that become part of our daily routine. We can form a habit in just 30 days, essentially putting happiness on auto-pilot once the happiness habit is formed.

Glance through this post and pick one action that makes you happy. Then do this every day for 30 days until it is entrenched in your daily routine and gets done without any further effort on your part.

photo credit: Andreanna

How to find happiness in the morning

“Be pleasant until ten o’clock in the morning and the rest of the day will take care of itself.”

- Elbert Hubbard

What is ‘good’ about your morning? We offer a cheerful ‘good morning!’ to people we meet, yet often forget to give ourselves a good morning. I often turn on the computer to check my email and blog first thing in the morning, though I am happier sitting still with a cup of coffee just enjoying the coolness of the air on my skin and listening to the birds sing.

Find a happiness routine that makes you feel happy. Then do this first thing in the morning every day for the next 30 days until it becomes a habit. You can choose one action from the list below or use your own.

Look around your bedroom and give thanks that you can see
Listen to the morning sounds and give thanks that you can hear
Touch your soft sheets and give thanks that you can feel
Breathe deeply and give thanks that you can smell
Sip coffee or water and give thanks that you can taste
Move your fingers and toes and give thanks that you can move
Watch a loved one sleeping and celebrate your relationship
Review one page in your gratitude journal
Read your personal creed and be thankful for being you
Give thanks for the gift of one more day of life

How to find happiness during the day

“Think what a better world it would be if we all, the whole world, had cookies and milk about three o’clock every afternoon and then lay down on our blankets for a nap.”

- Barbara Jordan

Christians are taught to say grace before meals, while Muslims pray at least five times a day. The value in these practices is in stopping to focus on what’s important at regular intervals during the day.

If you are not religious, there are other simple practices that can help us find happiness during the day. Again, choose one of the following actions or one of your own and do this once a day for the next 30 days until a habit is formed.

Pay someone a genuine compliment
Perform an anonymous good deed
Exercise at lunch time
Call a friend just to say hello
Call your partner to say you were thinking of him/her
Write a note to your child (see Henie’s beautiful post)
Take a walk around the block
Sit in a quiet park
Watch children at a playground
Complete your most important task for the day

How to find happiness before you sleep

“A good gulp of hot whiskey at bedtime – it’s not very scientific but it helps.”

- Alexander Fleming

Studies suggest that sleep reinforces our emotional memory. What you feel prior to sleeping may therefore play an important role in your long term emotional well-being. Do you spend the hour before bedtime on actions that generate positive, neutral, or negative emotions?

Here are a few actions to consider for your bedtime ritual:

Read an uplifting book
Cuddle with your partner
Admire your children’s fingers or toes
Light a candle and watch it burn
Burn aromatherapy oil and breathe deeply
Listen to soothing music
Meditate
Bless and pray for someone you know
Visualize your ideal day tomorrow
Write in your gratitude journal

How to find the most happiness

“I, not events, have the power to make me happy or unhappy today. I can choose which it shall be. Yesterday is dead. Tomorrow hasn’t arrived yet. I have just one day, today, and I’m going to be happy in it.”

- Groucho Marx

Ideally you would form a happiness habit for the morning, one during the day, and one before you sleep. This way you stay happy throughout the day. If your day is really busy then just do something every morning and every night. If even twice a day is too much, start with just on happiness habit a day – either morning or night.

The long term changes in your psyche from just one repeated daily action is probably under-rated. After gratitude journaling for a few months, I started to experience sudden moments of pure joy that descended on me of the blue.

Start your daily happiness habit today, and the day will soon come when you won’t need to ask how to find happiness. Happiness will find you.