How to Be Happy: 15 Simple Steps to Grow Happiness in Your Life

Discover 15 straightforward steps to nurture happiness and find greater joy in your life. Explore actionable tips for a happier you!

Happiness isn’t a destination to reach, but a way of traveling. Happiness is finding the joy in our day to day life tasks. When you do what needs to be done, when you achieve anything you want in life, you will feel fulfilled and that is happiness. But, do we really feel fulfilled? We, as humans, can never feel fulfilled. Whenever we achieve anything we want in life, we set a new goal to achieve, and we can’t feel fulfilled. As we can’t feel fulfilled, we always find happiness.

“Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within yourself, in your way of thinking.”
— Marcus Aurelius Antoninus

There is no any certain way that can surely make you happy. But surely there are some simple things that can help you attain happiness in your life. Below is a simple list of things that can help you attain happiness in this very moment. Most of the items, if not all, will apply to you too. Try to follow all of them or a few of these that will work best for you, and these incredibly-simple ways must increase your state of happiness.

1. Be Grateful — We never think about how lucky we are to have a warm home. We never think about how lucky we are to have a family. There is a lot of war and violence in the world, but we never think about how lucky we are to live in a safe and peaceful country.

Living with a grateful mind is important. Living with a grateful mind gives us the opportunity to celebrate the goodness in life. It allows us to share happiness and love, and opens the way for more joy and peace to come in.

Remember that feeling bad is normal as we go through a tough time in life. To be grateful is one of the best things to stop feeling bad, and there are thousands of things to be grateful for in life. Realize that the world is so beautiful, and you’re lucky to live in such a beautiful world.

2. Help someone — In our fast paced society, we are so busy that we simply forget to help others. But helping others is a great way to become happier. When helping someone, you must feel a pleasure inside you, because you know that you’re doing something good. Helping doesn’t always mean donating money, and this isn’t just about charity. This is about your personal connection with people and trying to add some value to their lives without looking for something in return. It can be donating your time, helping someone to solve a problem, or being there for someone in their time of need. You’ll find a sense of happiness, and feel happier once you do.

3. Learn to say “NO” — Saying “no” is important. It is also important to recognize your comfort level for how many events you can smoothly manage. Off course, helping others is your noble trait. But before doing that, it is also important to know when helping others is making you suffer. We say yes to too many things where we should have said no, and at the end of the day we get mad at ourselves for saying yes. So, don’t be afraid to say no. Whoever you say no to, they will still love you, still respect you too. No one can always be the good person who says yes.

4. Enjoy the simple things — The beauty of life is all around us, the miracle of life is all around us—from the birds soaring high above, to the seasons as they unfold, to the sun as it sets in the west every single day without fail. We can find happiness in the moments when we seek them out. So do the things that you love, find the simple pleasure from the things around you. Do you love watching the birds soaring high above? Reading a riveting romance novel? Watching the sunset? Whatever it is, enjoy it. Taking a few moments to do something you truly enjoy will give you a burst of positive energy. Your future-self might just thank you for it.

5. Read something — Read a good book. Whether it’s reading a wiki about a topic that interests you or reading a famous novel that you love, all are full of ways to learn things at your own pace. Reading a good book you truly enjoy will give you a burst of positive energy. It’s especially useful to read stories about people’s lives, their philosophy, their fate, and their lifestyle. By reading them, you can better understand your own personality.

6 . Be present — Being present means living in this very moment. It means appreciating everything happening right now, no matter how bad or good it might be. It’s really hard to be free from worry about the past or fret over the future. But if you really want to be happy, all you need to do is focus on living fully in the present. It’s about feeling the wind whispering around you, or the sound of birds singing beside your window. The beauty and miracle of life is always unfolding all around us. If we appreciate them, only then we can remove ourselves from stress and worries, decrease our fear and anxiety.

7. Walking outdoors — Walking outdoors can magically improve your mood. You need to spend sometimes outdoors for walking every day. A 20-minute brisk walk helps you to keep fit and remain healthy. But, walking is not only good for your health, but it can also act as spiritual and mental refreshment. While walking, watch the people around you doing small things. The small things of our daily life can also make us philosophic that can act as a spiritual pick-me-up. You can also take a nature walk. Study says walking in nature can boost well-being by reducing stress and negative thoughts.

8. Think positive — Not all dreams come true. So don’t think all the time the things that you didn’t achieve in your life. This will make you depressed and not happy at all. Stop comparing yourself with those at the very top, you will feel like you’ve come up short! Think that you’re unique. Nobody is like you and you’re not like anybody. Your dreams, your failures, your success, your shortcomings, your pleasure and sadness—you are with everything and everything is the part of your life. Focusing on the things you’ve accomplished is a lot more productive. This will make you more optimistic and less stressed. So think positive, avoid negativeness, and try to be an optimist.

9. Respect yourself — When you’ll learn to respect yourself and love your own life, only then you’ll find your place in this world. So dignity and self-respect are important that every person should have. Think that you’re also a part of this universe. You have also importance in this world. God has sent you with a specific objective. One of your small activities in your lifetime might be a big change in future world that God has already defined. So, as life is only one in this world, learn to love your own life and learn to respect yourself. If you can’t respect yourself and can’t love your own life, you’ll be far from being happy.

10. Healthy lifestyle — Healthy lifestyle is important for happiness. And bad habits are the enemy of healthy lifestyle. Bad habit is not always smoking; it may be procrastination, having food irregularly, spending long time watching TV, or late to bed and late to rise. All these negatively influence your life. So stop nurturing your bad habits. Healthy lifestyle doesn’t mean you have to live a luxurious life, or having costly food. It doesn’t have to cost you an arm and a leg — healthy living usually doesn’t cost much. As Marcus Aurelius Antoninus said, ” Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within yourself, in your way of thinking.”

11. Staying alone — Have you ever stood alone looking far through the window, and thought about yourself? Have you ever sat on a grass field under a very big sky looking at the birds soaring high above? If no, try to do it. Spend some time alone. Staying alone at least a few minutes is really important. When you’re alone, you can feel deeply yourself. You can analyze yourself, your mistakes, feeling bad and good, the days you left in behind. You can think about your problems, analyze your work, and make plans for the future.

12 . Straighten up — Our expression, appearance, talking style — all these are the mirror of our mind. Our posture dictates how we feel. If you have lack of confidence, it appears on your posture. So straighten up, walk like a boss, and talk with confidence. Try to think that you have also an importance; you have also a value, you are not less than others, and you are unique. These incredibly-simple ways must increase your confidence level, and state of happiness.

13. Prayer — Every religion teaches us how to live a happy life. And prayer is like a secret weapon of happiness. Prayer helps you to feel an innocent happiness inside you. Religious people are usually happier than others. So try to pray, at least a few minutes a day. Give thanks to God for everything you have, be grateful to God to live in such a beautiful world, ask God to forgive you for what you’ve done. Prayer can act as spiritual and mental refreshment. It can also increase your mental peace, and state of happiness.

14. Choose a hobby — A hobby can make your daily life more beautiful and more pleasant. It can act as your mental pick-me-up. A good hobby will not only help you to remain healthy but will also improve your mood and will help you to get rid of stress. So choose a hobby and give time on it, at least a few minutes a day. It can be learning a language, playing a musical instrument, blogging about a topic that interests you, or doing something productive you love. Whatever it is, choose a hobby and spend sometimes with it. It obviously helps you to improve your state of happiness by reducing depression and stress.

15. Spend quality family time — Spending quality family time is important, because family is forever. Quality family time helps to create strong bonds, love, and relationship among the family members—and all of these are essential factors for happiness. So spend quality family time with your family members. Spend sometimes having conversation together every day (keeping the cell phones away, and not in front of the TV), having dinner together every night, or going out together to the park, a museum, or just for walking, at least once in a week. Whatever it is, spend quality family time and enjoy it. If there is a distance between you and your family members, you won’t be happy all.

Conclusion

We all just want to be happy, but not everyone succeeds. The fact is that we all have the power within ourselves to be happy. If you want to be happy, all you have to do is decide to be so. Remember, happiness isn’t a myth. It’s just all up to you. You build your own fate… and only YOU can do it.