10 simple ways to be happy

Whether you're having a really bad day, you're generally a bit off-balance, or you just want to boost your good mood – today I want to introduce you to ten fairly simple ways that are guaranteed to make you feel happy. The great thing is that most of these tips can be implemented immediately and you can easily incorporate them into your daily routine.

The feeling of happiness is not only a pleasant end result for us, but above all it is a motivation for us. Happy people achieve more, they are more productive (Oswald, Proto & Sgroi, 2009). This seems very obvious at first, but it's also easier said than done, right?
Not necessarily. Even small changes can make a difference. If you make them regularly, you're well on your way to making your life easier. But let's just get started – here are 10 simple ways to be happy!

1. Go outside more often and soak up the sun

Even just spending 20 minutes outdoors not only generates positive emotions but also improves your working memory. This works especially well – as you can probably imagine – in nice weather. It's a good thing that spring is slowly reaching Germany...

People even seem to feel happier in general when they are in a natural environment than when they are in an urban environment. This was found by a study by University of Sussex out of here.

Twenty minutes is a nice amount of time that can be incorporated into almost any daily schedule. Whether it's during your lunch break or on the way to work or university.

2. Pamper yourself with a bouquet of flowers

It may seem a bit random and arbitrary to you, but a study by Harvard University actually found that people whose homes had flowers felt less anxious and less depressed compared to those who had candles. They also showed more compassion toward others. I just wanted to include this fact because it's something so simple, yet apparently can make a big difference!

PHOTO BY ALISA ANTON ON UNSPLASH

3. Try to get more sleep

We need sleep so our bodies can recover. When we get enough sleep, we are more focused and productive. But sleep also affects our sense of happiness (Van der Helm, Gujar &Walker, 2010Negative stimuli are processed in the brain by the amygdala, while positive or neutral stimuli are processed by the hippocampus. Sleep deprivation has a more severe impact on the hippocampus than on the amygdala. Therefore, after a lack of sleep, we find it easier to remember dark and sad things than positive ones.
Sleep also affects how sensitive we react to negative emotions. People who worked through the afternoon and didn't nap were more sensitive to negative emotions like fear or anger. Those who took a nap were not only more receptive to positive emotions but also felt better and happier.

4.Start a gratitude practice

This one might even be my favorite tip – incredibly simple, yet incredibly effective!
There are many different ways to practice gratitude. For example, you can get a gratitude journal and write in it regularly, or you can talk with your partner or a friend every day over dinner about what you're currently grateful for. Every morning, right after I wake up, I list three things I'm grateful for at that moment. Whether they're small or big, you automatically shift into a happier mood. Various studies, for example, this, demonstrate the connection between gratitude and happiness.

5. Exercise and get your body moving

This recommendation is hardly surprising. As everyone knows, exercise and training have a remarkable effect on our well-being. Therefore, it is becoming an increasingly important part of Treatment of depression.

But you don't have to be depressed to reap the benefits of exercise. Exercise helps you relax and boost brain performance—not to mention the visual effects, of course.
You don’t always have to sacrifice 1-2 hours; 7 minutes are enough to make a difference.

PHOTO BY ALEXANDER MILS ON UNSPLASH

6. Smile more often

Smiling influences our emotions. When we smile, we feel happier – and vice versa. When we are happy, our brain automatically sends signals to our muscles, and we smile. This mechanism also works the other way around: When we smile, signals are sent to our brain telling it that we are happy. This happens regardless of whether our mouth is just twisting or we are actually smiling. study found that maintaining a "positive" facial expression, i.e., smiling, during a stressful task has psychological and physiological effects: Subjects who smiled during a task were more positively disposed than those with a neutral facial expression. Furthermore, those in the smiling group had a lower heart rate when recovering from this stressful task than the other participants.

However, if people feel compelled to smile even when they're not feeling well, it can even make them ill. This is required, for example, in jobs that require a lot of interaction with customers.

So, you shouldn't go through the day with a permanent grin on your face if you just don't feel like it. But smiling a little more often, or giving yourself that first smile in the morning, can help make us happier.

7. Plan a trip

We feel happiest during the planning phase of a vacation or trip because we enjoy the anticipation and positive expectations. But of course, you can't plan a trip all the time – for financial and time reasons alone. It's great that this trick also works if we don't even go on the planned trip. Because just imagining pleasant things makes us feel happy.So it's worth adding an appointment to your calendar every now and then that we're looking forward to, even if it's six months or a year in the future. And whenever we need a little happiness boost, we can remind ourselves of it.

8. Meditate (more)

Meditation not only helps us to calm down, clear our minds, or improve our ability to concentrate, but it also makes us feel happier. study discovered that regular meditation even changes our brain structures: areas associated with stress shrink, and areas linked to compassion and self-awareness expand. So, there's every reason to make meditation a (new) habit!

9. Eat more fruits and vegetables

There are numerous Studies, which prove that a diet rich in fruit and vegetables makes us happier. Furthermore, effects on general well-being and creativity are evident. While some unhealthy foods like chips or sweets also make us feel happier, this feeling usually only lasts for a short time, and many people feel even unhappier afterward than before.

10. Spend time with your loved ones

We know that humans are social animals. And even introverts benefit from company. But of course, not everyone makes us happy; after all, we want to feel comfortable when we're with other people. Therefore, spending time with family or friends seems to make us especially happy.

In fact, a Salary increase not so happy as a strengthened social network.

How much the right environment can make a difference is something I This has only really become clear in recent years. It has a strong influence on how we feel and how quickly/determined we are when it comes to achieving our goals. But that's a different topic, and more on that soon.