How we change what others think, feel, believe and do

Ways to Happiness

Techniques > Ways to Happiness

Being happy is something we all want, although not everyone seems to be that good at it. Yet there is a range of routes in which the right method can be found for many different personalities. Here are some methods you can use to make yourself happier and also to help others to cheer up.

Three key routes to happiness:

Sensory Hedonism: Pleasure through direct experience.
Achievable Challenge: Happiness from hard work.
Devoted Service: Happiness by helping others.

Specific techniques to make you happy:

Achieving Expertise: Authoritative pattern-matching.
Act Happy: Acting happy can make you happy.
Active Life: Just keep doing things.
Aligned Integrity: Be you.
Believing Vision: Seeing thing positively.
Constructive Activism: Find a cause to champion.
Contemplative Life: Live quietly.
Creative Action: Bringing things into existence.
Expressing Gratitude: Just being thankful.
Engaging Hobby: Skilled leisure activity.
Expressive Writing: Writing away the bad stuff.
Find Benefit: See value in everything.
Find Religion: Discover your deity.
Forgive and Forget: Let the bad stuff go.
Healthy Body: Helps a healthy, happy mind.
Hug Somebody: Close comfort and affection.
Keep Busy: Beats boredom and adding value.
Lifelong Learning: Developing knowledge and skills.
Look Good: Look good, feel good.
Mindful Immersion: Being in the moment.
Mood Matching: Match action to your mood.
Noticing and Linking: See and connect to good things.
Positive Nostalgia: Rose-tinted retrospective.
Positive Reversal: See the other side of things.
Positive Writing: Write positive things.
Purging Unhappiness: Get rid of the bad stuff.
Random Kindness: Be nice to strangers.
Reframe Desire: Want what you have and can get.
Remind Yourself: Don't forget to be happy.
Retail Therapy: Go shopping!
Satisfy Needs: Get to the basic stuff.
Single Sufficiency: Be self-sufficient.
Social Networking: Have lots of friends.
Spending Time: Do more of what makes you happy.
Stop Judging: Accept people as they are.
Stroke a Dog: Hug a puppy or caress a pet.
Take A Break: Stop and smell the roses.
Unconditional Love: Just love everyone and everything.
Varying Experience: Doing different things.

Further articles on happiness:

What Makes People Happy?: Here's a summary.
Money and Happiness: It can make a difference.
Optimal Happiness: Ways to be happier still.
Positively Unhealthy: When being positive is bad for you.
Doing What Works: Not blindly believing.
Subjective Well-Being: Cognitive and affective views.

Ways to Happiness

See also