Last Updated on December 19, 2022
It may be hard to imagine yourself feeling happy, especially with everything that’s been going on around the world. But it’s possible. Similar to creating habits, you can create a routine for optimism or contentment.
Try these ‘feel-good’ habits every day and see what works for you.
Habits To Happiness
Never underestimate the power of small changes. With a few tweaks to your daily patterns, you can slowly switch your mindset from glum to glad.
- Get active (e.g. quick jog, walk around the park, sign up for yoga, etc.).
- Plan your week. Sometimes, it’s as easy as knowing what lies ahead.
- Get enough sleep. Keep your room cool, dark, and quiet for this one.
- Take long, deep breaths. Super helpful in stressful situations.
- Write in a journal. You can do this with a pen and notebook, or with an app.
- Avoid social media for a day. Don’t get too caught up with the Joneses.
- Create a self-care routine (e.g. bubble baths on Fridays, watching a movie on weekends).
- Catch up with friends. Why not meet them over a hot cup of coffee and cake?
- De-clutter. A few minutes will do. Clean out that junk drawer or dust your sofa.
- Volunteer or donate. There’s nothing like giving back to others to feel happy.
- Date yourself. Take yourself to a gourmet restaurant; shop ‘til you drop; buy yourself a bouquet!
A couple of these tasks will take more than a day to complete. Pace yourself and take as much time as you need. When something doesn’t feel right or doesn’t suit your lifestyle, ditch it. Don’t be afraid to seek out what you feel you need.
Beautiful Happiness Quotes
Happiness will look different depending on who you ask. For some, it could be having a large circle of healthy, trusting relationships. For others, it’s having enough financial means for a rainy day. No answer is wrong, really.
Have you asked yourself what makes you happy lately? If not, may these happiness quotes inspire you towards the answer.
1. “Happiness is not something ready-made. It comes from your own actions.” – Dalai Lama
2. “Find out where joy resides, and give it a voice far beyond singing. For to miss the joy is to miss all.” – Robert Louis Stevenson
3. “For myself, I am an optimist — it does not seem to be much use being anything else.” – Sir Winston Churchill
4. “A happy life consists not in the absence, but in the mastery of hardships.” – Helen Keller
5. “What is happiness? The feeling that power is growing, that resistance is overcome.” – Friedrich Nietzsche, The Antichrist
6. “Happiness requires that we give up a worldly orientation—not worldly things, but a worldly attachment to things. We have to surrender all outcomes. We have to live here but appreciate the joke.” – Marianne Williamson
7. “Happiness lies in the fulfillment of the spirit through the body.” – Cyril Connolly, The Unquiet Grave
8. “The positive thinker sees the invisible, feels the intangible, and achieves the impossible.” – Anonymous
9. “Joy is not a thing, it is in us.” – Charles Wagner
10. “We are not responsible for what our eyes see. We are responsible for how we perceive what we are seeing.” – Gabby Bernstein
11. “Happiness cannot be traveled to, owned, earned, or worn. It is the spiritual experience of living every minute with love, grace, and gratitude.” – Denis Waitley
12. “Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.” – Mahatma Gandhi
13. “Happiness is a continuation of happenings which are not resisted.” – Deepak Chopra
14. “A happy person is not a person in a certain set of circumstances, but rather a person with a certain set of attitudes.” – Hugh Downs
15. “It is not how much we have, but how much we enjoy, that makes happiness.” – Charles Spurgeon
16. “The most important thing is to enjoy your life—to be happy—it’s all that matters.” – Audrey Hepburn
17. “Happiness is a perfume you cannot pour on others without getting a few drops on yourself.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
18. “The greatest gift you can ever give another person is your own happiness.” – Esther Hicks
19. “We act as though comfort and luxury were the chief requirements of life, when all that we need to make us happy is something to be enthusiastic about.” – Charles Kingsley
20. “Garner up pleasant thoughts in your mind, for pleasant thoughts make pleasant lives.” – John Wilkins
21. “Undisturbed calmness of mind is attained by cultivating friendliness toward the happy, compassion for the unhappy, delight in the virtuous, and indifference toward the wicked.” ― Patañjali, The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali
22. “To be happy, love must mean more to you than anything.” – Robert Holden, PH.D
23. “Practice love until you remember that you are love.” – Swami Sai Premananda
24. “The thing that is really hard, and really amazing, is giving up on being perfect and beginning the work of becoming yourself.” – Anna Quindlen
25. “Mindfulness helps you go home to the present. And every time you go there and recognize a condition of happiness that you have, happiness comes.” – Thich Nhat Hanh
26. “Happiness doesn’t depend on any external conditions, it is governed by our mental attitude.” – Dale Carnegie
27. “The place to be happy is here, the time to be happy is now.” – Robert Ingersoll
28. “Write the bad things that are done to you in sand, but write the good things that happen to you on a piece of marble.” – Arabic Parable
29. “After all it is those who have a deep and real inner life who are best able to deal with the irritating details of outer life.” – Evelyn Underhill
30. “Happiness can be found even in the darkest of times, when one only remembers to turn on the light.” – Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban