How to Make Yourself Happy

Table of ContentsView AllTable of ContentsIdentify What Makes You HappyFactors That Boost HappinessHow Attitude Affects HappinessFinding BalanceWork Toward Your GoalsDaily Happiness Habits

Table of ContentsView All

View All

Table of Contents

Identify What Makes You Happy

Factors That Boost Happiness

How Attitude Affects Happiness

Finding Balance

Work Toward Your Goals

Daily Happiness Habits

Close

How can you make yourself happy? This question lies at the heart of manygoalsthat people pursue.Happiness, often described as involving positive emotions and life satisfaction, can indeed be cultivated in several ways. In addition to adding happiness-inducing elements to your lifestyle, you can also work on your habitual thought patterns to foster a more optimistic outlook.

In order to make yourself happy, you should explore the current state of your life, assess your level of happiness, and find a direction to work toward that will likely bring greater joy and contentment. Keep in mind, however, that happiness means different things to different people.

Glimmer: How to Trigger Feelings of Joy and Safety

The first step tomaking yourself happyis to figure out what things in life bring you joy and contentment. This means assessing the things that actually bring you joy and not what societal expectations tell you about joy.

Sometimes it’s easy to get caught up in the idea of what you think will make you happy rather than what actually does. People strive for that perfect relationship, the perfect house, the beautiful body, the approval of others, all in an attempt to be happy.

Sometimes these things make us happy; other times, we stress over not having reached our goals, or we reach them and find that we’re still not happy. Other times, we focus so intensely on one goal that’s thought to bring happiness that we don’t have time for other things in our life that will make us truly happy.

Positive psychologyexperts—those who study human happiness and the factors that contribute to it—have identified several key areas of life that seem to be morerelated to personal happiness. Some factors include:

Being dissatisfied with some of these areas is not necessarily a recipe for unhappiness and being satisfied in most of these areas is no guarantee for a life of bliss. However, if you’re more satisfied with these areas of your life, you tend to be happier in general.

Focusing on some of these key areas may help increase your levels of happiness in your daily life. Look for ways that you can make changes, even if they are just small changes at first, that will help you feel more content. Making healthy choices, getting involved in things you are passionate about, and developing astrong social supportnetwork may help.

Press Play for Mental Strength Tips

How Your Attitude Affects Happiness

Lifestyle, however, is only part of the happiness equation. Yourattitudeabout life and the things that happen to you each day can also greatly impact your overall level of happiness and life satisfaction.

It’s probably no secret that optimists tend to be happier people, but you may not realize that there’s more to optimism than “putting on a happy face” or “looking on the bright side.” There are specific traits that bring optimists more success, greater health, and increased life satisfaction.

Cultivating the mind of an optimist can not only mean cultivating happiness, regardless of your circumstance, but it can actually bring more things into your life to be happy about.

In addition tooptimism, happy people tend to have aninternal locus of control. Simply put, they tend to believe that they are themasters of their faterather than the victims of circumstance.

When you view the stressors of your life as a challenge rather than a threat, you tend to come up with more effective solutions. You also feel more exhilarated (rather than drained) as you tackle these circumstances.

Many people pursue goals that they expect will make them happy, but happiness isn’t always the end result. We all know people who have put everything they have into their careers—at the expense of their personal lives—only to wonder why they’re successful and still unhappy.

In order to make yourself happy, you need to find balance. A good job and financial stability can be important for happiness, but you must also balance those things with otherfactors that promote happinessincluding your health, your relationships, and other meaningful pursuits.

There’s no happiness quick fix. It’s a balancing act, so don’t devote the lion’s share of energy to pursuing a single goal to the exclusion of other important lifestyle factors.

As you set your goals, rememberallof the areas of life that are important to you. Map out a detailed description of how you would like your whole life to look, or set goals and develop healthy habits for a different area of your life each month.

For example, many people expect to immediately change their habits out of sheer willpower; any slip-ups are experienced as “failures” and too often contribute to an abandonment of the goal and feelings of defeat.

If you’re trying to make positive changes in your life, it’s important to set yourself up to succeed:

Like everything else, making yourself happier is a process, so give yourself time to make the changes and see the changes.

While it is important to pursue long-term solutions to promote your happiness, there are also small things you can do that can make you happier in the present moment. Some of these include:

If you are struggling to find happiness and coping with feelings of low mood, consider talking to your doctor ormental health professional. Feelings of unhappiness may be a symptom ofdepression. Talking to a professional can help you get the treatment you need to feel better, which may involvepsychotherapy, medication, or a combination of both.

A Word From Verywell

Finding ways to make yourself happy often starts with small steps that help you work toward long-term goals. So spend some time thinking about the things that will help you feel happy and satisfied in your life and consider some of the ways that you can work toward some of those goals.

Just remember that happiness isn’t a destination. It is a process of creating a life that brings you joy, purpose, and fulfillment. You don’t need to wait to become happy; there are steps you can take each day tofeel betterand more content.

3 SourcesVerywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.Cunha LF, Pellanda LC, Reppold CT.Positive psychology and gratitude interventions: a randomized clinical trial.Front Psychol. 2019;10:584. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00584Miller JC, Krizan Z.Walking facilitates positive affect (even when expecting the opposite).Emotion. 2016;16(5):775-85. doi: 10.1037/a0040270Stellar JE, John-Henderson N, Anderson CL, Gordon AM, McNeil GD, Keltner D.Positive affect and markers of inflammation: discrete positive emotions predict lower levels of inflammatory cytokines.Emotion. 2015;15(2):129-33. doi:10.1037/emo0000033

3 Sources

Verywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.Cunha LF, Pellanda LC, Reppold CT.Positive psychology and gratitude interventions: a randomized clinical trial.Front Psychol. 2019;10:584. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00584Miller JC, Krizan Z.Walking facilitates positive affect (even when expecting the opposite).Emotion. 2016;16(5):775-85. doi: 10.1037/a0040270Stellar JE, John-Henderson N, Anderson CL, Gordon AM, McNeil GD, Keltner D.Positive affect and markers of inflammation: discrete positive emotions predict lower levels of inflammatory cytokines.Emotion. 2015;15(2):129-33. doi:10.1037/emo0000033

Verywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.

Cunha LF, Pellanda LC, Reppold CT.Positive psychology and gratitude interventions: a randomized clinical trial.Front Psychol. 2019;10:584. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00584Miller JC, Krizan Z.Walking facilitates positive affect (even when expecting the opposite).Emotion. 2016;16(5):775-85. doi: 10.1037/a0040270Stellar JE, John-Henderson N, Anderson CL, Gordon AM, McNeil GD, Keltner D.Positive affect and markers of inflammation: discrete positive emotions predict lower levels of inflammatory cytokines.Emotion. 2015;15(2):129-33. doi:10.1037/emo0000033

Cunha LF, Pellanda LC, Reppold CT.Positive psychology and gratitude interventions: a randomized clinical trial.Front Psychol. 2019;10:584. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00584

Miller JC, Krizan Z.Walking facilitates positive affect (even when expecting the opposite).Emotion. 2016;16(5):775-85. doi: 10.1037/a0040270

Stellar JE, John-Henderson N, Anderson CL, Gordon AM, McNeil GD, Keltner D.Positive affect and markers of inflammation: discrete positive emotions predict lower levels of inflammatory cytokines.Emotion. 2015;15(2):129-33. doi:10.1037/emo0000033

Meet Our Review Board

Share Feedback

Was this page helpful?Thanks for your feedback!What is your feedback?HelpfulReport an ErrorOtherSubmit

Was this page helpful?

Thanks for your feedback!

What is your feedback?HelpfulReport an ErrorOtherSubmit

What is your feedback?