It’s not always easy to find the happiness you crave amidst the stresses in life. So, if you find yourself asking the question, “What should I do to feel happier?”, you’re not alone.
Happiness isn’t just a pleasant emotion—it’s a state of well-being that impacts our mental, emotional and physical health. While happiness means something different to each of us, researchers have discovered strategies that can help. Some practices can elevate our mood, increase our overall life satisfaction and potentially lead to greater growth and fulfillment.
Whether through simple daily habits, mindset shifts or lifestyle changes, science shows we can train our brains to experience more joy and contentment. In this article, we’ll dive into some simple, science-backed tips on how to be happier in life.
10 Simple Ways to Feel Happier Every Day
We’ve uncovered some practical, science-backed approaches that can help boost your happiness levels. What’s remarkable is that many require just minutes a day, yet when practiced consistently, they can create noticeable improvements in your overall sense of well-being. Many of these can also lead to greater long-term well-being and provide deeper life satisfaction.
1. Go Outside and Move Your Body
Physical activity has long been associated with an increase in happiness. This is because it releases endorphins, reduces stress hormones and promotes neuroplasticity in the brain.
Combining exercise with outdoor time, however, gives you an increased benefit. Nature exposure has its own mood-boosting effects. According to UCLA Health, being in natural light can boost mood and happiness, and a study in the Journal of Environmental Psyschology found a positive correlation between subjective well-being and being outside and enjoying nature. Based on a study in Psychiatry Research, being outdoors can also improve overall mental health. Additionally, a study on exercise in natural outdoor environments compared to urban outdoor environments suggests that physical activity outdoors in green natural spaces is linked to multiple psychological benefits.
Check the weather—then get outside for a walk or jog to take a step toward happiness in life.
2. Get Quality Sleep
Sleep quality directly impacts mood regulation and emotional resilience. Poor sleep amplifies negative emotions while dampening positive ones, creating a recipe for unhappiness. Conversely, consistent quality sleep helps your brain process emotional information and prepares you to approach each day with more optimism. One study, in particular, found that better sleep quality correlated with greater happiness and better quality of life.
Aim for seven to nine hours of quality sleep by maintaining a regular schedule, creating a relaxing bedtime routine and optimizing your sleep environment.
Quick tip: If you’re struggling to fall asleep, read our guide to falling asleep faster and waking up refreshed.
3. Practice Daily Gratitude
Gratitude can transform our perspective. Harvard Health Publishing shares that studies on gratitude have generally shown that it can increase positive emotions, better equip us to handle adversity and even improve our health and relationships. One study on gratitude interventions found that participants experienced results such as more positive moods, greater optimism and less psychological pain. Another study on gratitude and happiness suggests that gratitude practices are helpful in “shaping the brain’s response to positive stimuli and promoting enduring states of happiness.”
So, science says there is a correlation between gratitude and happiness. What can we do? Start by incorporating gratitude practices in our daily lives. For example:
- Take time to write down three to five things you’re grateful for each week.
- Make time to express appreciation and gratitude toward others regularly.
- Keep a gratitude journal where you regularly record specific things you appreciate—from meaningful relationships to simple pleasures like a warm cup of coffee or a beautiful sunset.
4. Perform Acts of Kindness
Science suggests that there are many mental health benefits to performing acts of kindness. They can improve a sense of connection with others, reduce stress, and increase self-esteem and happiness. A post-pandemic study of those with anxiety and depressive disorders found that acts of kindness improved life satisfaction and social connection. A 2024 study published in Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology also found that one act of kindness per week suggests the potential to decrease loneliness and reduce stress.
So, if you’re looking for how to make your life better and happier, get started with an act of kindness today and reap the benefits. These kind acts don’t need to be grand gestures. Simple actions like helping a neighbor, paying a genuine compliment or leaving an encouraging note for a colleague can create what researchers call a “helper’s high”—a release of endorphins that creates a natural sense of joy.
Extra insight: How 30 Acts of Kindness Made Me a Better Person
5. Write or Journal About Positive Experiences
Neil Pasricha, bestselling author, TED speaker and director of The Institute for Global Happiness, says: “Writing for 20 minutes about a positive experience dramatically improves happiness. Why? Because you actually relive the experience as you’re writing it and then relive it every time you read it.”
So, this “20-minute replay” is effective because you mentally relive the positive experience while writing about it, and then again each time you read it, essentially multiplying the joy from a single good moment. This practice could help increase feelings of positivity and allow us to extract greater meaning from our experiences.
Happiness expert Gretchen Rubin echoes that journaling positive experiences can help boost our mood in the present. She shares that it can additionally help us increase happiness through recognizing our accomplishments and being an outlet for creativity.
6. Disconnect From Technology
The benefits of doing a digital detox are well documented, and for most, it’s no surprise that stepping back from technology can be healthy. Recent research by Adrian Ward, associate professor of marketing at the University of Texas at Austin, suggests that not only does disconnecting from internet usage lead to an improvement in well-being and mental health, but also the “average degree of improvement in symptoms of depression was larger than that reported in multiple studies of antidepressant medications.” In short, disconnecting from our smartphones and devices can be a powerful way to reduce feelings of depression and increase happiness.
Try setting periods where you restrict or block internet usage. Consider turning off your phone after dinner to give your mind true downtime from the constant stimulation of screens and notifications. Or, have a set time each evening before bed that you disconnect. This can create space for more meaningful activities like face-to-face conversations, personal hobbies, journaling or simply allowing your mind to process the day’s events.
7. Experience Flow States
Flow occurs when you’re deeply engaged in an activity that feels rewarding, and can have many positive mental benefits. Mihály Csíkszentmihályi, considered the “father of flow,” deems flow an optimal experience under certain conditions. These can potentially lead to greater
happiness and a flourishing life.
Neil Pasricha says, “Get into a groove. Be in the zone. However you characterize it, when you’re completely absorbed with what you’re doing, it means you’re being challenged and demonstrating skill at the same time.”
To achieve a flow state, try these tips:
- Seek to balance challenge and skill.
- Be present in the moment.
- Set clear goals.
- Concentrate on the task at hand.
It’s also important to do the task or activity based on internal motivation, not something imposed on you by others. Whether through creative pursuits, sports, deep work or even mindfully engaging in everyday tasks, seeking flow experiences contributes significantly to overall happiness. It can create a sense of purpose, accomplishment and presence.
8. Practice Mindfulness
Science shows that mindfulness has positive impacts and benefits. Mindfulness helps break the habit of rumination—dwelling on negative thoughts—which is associated with unhappiness and depression. A study on the relationships between mindfulness, purpose in life, happiness, anxiety and depression found a correlation among its participants that mindfulness “was strongly and positively connected to higher happiness.”
Psychologist Maja Wrzesien, Ph.D., views mindfulness not as a “magic pill” for happiness, but a way to shift our perspective. She shares that mindfulness can help us go beyond a temporary experience of happiness to a larger sense of growth, fulfillment and connection.
So, in our quest for how to get happier in life, mindfulness practices can be a powerful start. You can start with a simple practice, such as two to five minutes of focused, mindful breathing daily. Practice doing daily activities like walking and eating mindfully, with intention and awareness. Do a simple body scan meditation or focus on single-tasking instead of multitasking. These small mindfulness habits can potentially make a big impact on your overall happiness.
9. Nurture Social Connections
Strong social relationships are consistently linked to greater happiness. In fact, having strong relationships is one of the predictors of well-being and health throughout life. Plus, having strong social connections has even been linked to living longer.
These connections provide emotional support, a sense of belonging and opportunities for positive experiences. The depth and quality of these relationships matter more than quantity. Focus on cultivating a few meaningful connections rather than accumulating many superficial ones. Be intentional about your relationships and take time to connect with others—you’ll reap the happiness and health benefits.
10. Pursue Meaningful Goals
Goal setting has many positive benefits. Working toward goals that align with your values provides a sense of purpose and accomplishment. Setting clear goals and making progress toward meaningful objectives can contribute to life satisfaction.
Furthermore, reflecting on your goals can increase happiness. Research on happiness and goal-setting training suggests that the reasons why we pursue a certain goal play a part in how happy and mentally healthy we feel. The study suggests that pursuing goals for positive reasons (rather than fear or avoidance, for example) is linked to greater subjective well-being, or greater happiness.
The most happiness-inducing goals tend to be those focused on personal growth, connection with others or contributing to something beyond yourself, rather than extrinsic rewards like wealth or status.
To start setting goals and working toward objectives that will lead you to greater happiness in life:
- Consider creating goals that are uplifting or positive and that lead toward an achievement rather than avoiding negative consequences.
- Determine long-term goals you’d like to achieve, then shift to accomplishing short-term goals aligned with your bigger objective.
- Set specific goals or consider using the SMART framework for goal setting.
Practical Tips for a Happier Life
When you’re looking for ways to be happier, it doesn’t need to be overwhelming. It can be helpful to remember that there is no one-size-fits-all approach, and that there isn’t one set of steps to happiness that works for everyone. Cultivating happiness and working toward greater growth and deeper fulfillment in life is a unique journey for each person. It can involve many small practices as well as times of deeper reflection, processing and learning. Consider implementing these tips to help you on the path:
- Start small—adopt one or two habits rather than attempting a complete lifestyle overhaul.
- Be consistent with your practices, as benefits accumulate over time.
- Practice self-compassion on days when happiness feels more difficult to achieve.
- Track your mood to notice patterns and what works best for you.
- Focus on progress rather than perfection in your happiness journey.
Find Simple Ways to Be Happy Starting Today
If you’re looking for how to be happy, according to science, you have plenty of options. Remember that happiness is a journey, not a destination. The science is clear that small, consistent actions can impact your overall well-being. It might start with finding ways that help you discover how to feel happy—and these can lead you to the deeper result of learning how to be happy.
Consider which of these happiness-boosting habits resonates most with you, and incorporate just one into your routine today. Perhaps begin with a 30-minute walk, a two-minute mindfulness meditation or writing down five things you’re grateful for.
Over time, these simple practices can transform your relationship with happiness, helping you build a more joyful and fulfilling life—one day at a time. Through intentional actions and mindset shifts, we all have the power to train our brains for greater happiness and well-being.
Photo by Rido/Shutterstock.
