If you want to feel happier, these 10 simple habits are here for you. You can feel happier with less effort and more ease.
You don’t have to work so hard to feel happier. When you want to feel happier, it usually comes down to prioritizing a few simple habits. Big accomplishments and accolades are supposed to make us feel happy, but small shifts and tiny moments can make you even happier without all the hard work. We just have to tune in to them instead of waiting to be happy someday.
Feel Happier With Less Effort: 10 Simple Habits That Really Help
Feel happier right now by starting with the first simple habit. It’s an immediate (easy) mood booster! For a consistent uptick in your happiness levels, try one or two of these habits each week, then pick your favorites to become daily habits. These habits will make you feel happier. They will have a positive ripple effect on your overall wellness and your connections with people and projects you care about.
1. Prioritize simple pleasures to feel happier immediately.
I wrote a whole chapter about simple pleasures in the “rise” section of my book, Gentle. You’ll discover that simple pleasures don’t have to cost much, and they often lie in the ordinary things you do every day. Some of my simple pleasures include reading a book with my morning coffee, taking a long walk, and chatting with my daughter. Oh, and I love a little dark chocolate. You don’t have to earn your simple pleasures. You can enjoy them anytime.
2. Gently change your surroundings.
What surrounds you can impact how you feel on the inside. Moving physical things around rearranges your thoughts and feelings too. You can change your surroundings by taking a different route to work, visiting a new place for breakfast in your neighborhood or simply by changing your at-home routine. Drink your coffee outside, move your furniture around, or listen to music that isn’t on your usual rotation. Keep it simple and gentle and see how your mood changes.
3. Feel happier by doing something nice for someone else.
There is so much pressure to change the world and find our purpose. What if we just contributed in a small way to someone else’s day instead? I know the simple kindness of someone sending me a sweet message can change my day. It doesn’t take much to make someone else happier, which in turn usually makes you feel happier too. Here are a few examples:
- Bake something for a friend.
- Send a care package or thank you note.
- Donate books to a little library.
- Share someone’s creative work or small business on social media.
- Make a playlist full of love songs for someone you love. I made one for you.
- Give someone a genuine compliment.
- Donate to an organization you care about. I like The Loveland Foundation.
4. Create anticipation by planning something fun.
According to this article in the New York Times, looking forward to something can be almost as good as experiencing it. Plan a trip or pre-order a book from your favorite author. In the article, they say, “Numerous studies suggest that having something to look forward to boosts your mood and lowers your stress.”
“Imagining good things ahead of us makes us feel better in the current moment,” said Simon A. Rego, the chief psychologist at Montefiore Medical Center and Albert Einstein College of Medicine, who has written extensively on the effect of anticipation on mood. “It can increase motivation, optimism and patience and decrease irritability.”
5. Honor your bedtime.
There is no doubt in my mind that we feel happier when we sleep better. This habit may not feel easy, but it is so simple. If you struggle to sleep well, start with your bedtime. Are you going to bed at a reasonable hour, or are you staying up in the name of doing, “one more thing?” Because it’s never only one more thing, and it always takes longer than just a sec. Start by setting a reasonable bedtime.
Honor your bedtime. Even if you aren’t falling asleep right away, create the gentle practice of putting yourself to bed. Read or do something else that doesn’t require a phone, TV, table or computer if possible.
Get in bed about an hour before you want to fall asleep. That’s about 8:30 p.m. for me. Choose a time that works for you and allows for 7 or 8 hours of sleep if possible. Once you commit to a bedtime, honor it. Set an alarm to remind you to go to bed. Stick to it for at least two weeks so you can see if it helps you sleep better.
6. Say “No thank you”
I don’t know who needs to hear this, but you are allowed to say, “no” even when you aren’t busy. I don’t say “no” because I’m so busy, I say “no” because I don’t want to be so busy. Just because you have time or availability for something doesn’t mean you are obligated to say yes. You are the only one who can protect your time. Don’t create space so you can do more things (especially things you have no interest in). Create space for more life, for more being you.
7. Pause purchases and you’ll feel happier.
Stop buying things you don’t need. I used to buy things because I thought they would make me feel happier. And they did, at first. That happiness dropped off fast though. As Matt D’Avella says, “After you have your basic needs met, getting more stuff won’t make you any happier.” Hedonic adaptation, sometimes called the hedonic treadmill suggests that through life’s ups and downs, and highs and lows we usually return to our own level of baseline happiness.
In other words, more stuff isn’t the answer if you are in search of more happiness and life satisfaction. The next time you want to buy something (outside of your basic needs), pause the purchase for 30 days, and then decide.
8. Create the habit of being unavailable.
Being connected to people and available for people we love can make us feel happier. But when we are always available, we may start to feel resentful. Between work calls, emails and texts, and friends and family reaching out, even the good stuff can feel overwhelming.
Create the habit of being unavailable for a little while each day by creating “me time” on your calendar. Turn your phone off or turn on Do Not Disturb mode. By creating some protected time for yourself, you can better engage with your community when it’s time. We need both time for ourselves and time to be connected with others.
9. If you want to feel happier, quit something that makes you sad.
Take a look at the habits in your life that are causing you pain. Decide if the things you are listening to, watching, and engaging in make you feel happier or less happy. If you are watching a show or reading a book you don’t enjoy, quit doing that. If starting your day scrolling social media drains you, quit that. These 27 things will make you feel happier than scrolling social media or the news.
10. Be early for everything.
I struggle with this one the most! Commit to showing up 10 minutes early for meetings, appointments, and even Zoom calls or other things you don’t need to leave the house for. I’ve been making this easy by bringing a book with me everywhere. I’m bribing myself, “If you show up early, you get to read!”
Showing up early removes so much stress. It makes me feel happier because I don’t have to worry about traffic or showing up right on time, leaving no time to settle in.
The goal isn’t to feel happy all the time, but to know that happiness is within reach. You don’t have to wait to be happy or struggle to be happy. You can choose to feel happier with less effort and more ease.
