How To Be Happy

Happiness is in some ways the holy grail of human existence. Many spend their entire lives seeking happiness and never finding it. Happiness cannot be found in the world until we can understand it in our own lives. Follow these tips and you can be happy.

1. Smile even when you don’t want to. A smile can transform anyone’s day. Smile at strangers and you may make their day. That same smile may perk up your own mood as well. Before you can be happy, you have to think you can be and smiling will help.
2. Decide that you can be happy. Some people aren’t happy because they either feel they cannot be or don’t deserve to be. If you are one of these people, you cannot be happy until you allow yourself the possibility.
3. Say thank you. Gratitude for the life you have is the first step once you decide to allow yourself to be happy. Say thank you to your parents for bringing you into this world. Say thank you to anyone who has every loved you. Then say thank you to every mistake or obstacle that you ever learned from. The act of saying thank you will remind you of all you have to be happy about.
4. Know thyself. Get to know you, who you are, what interests you and what you love. You cannot make yourself happy until you find out what motivates you.
5. Accept your strengths and weaknesses. After you accepted the gifts in your life during step three, you need to look at the gifts you give to others. Be honest about your strengths. Then get real again and come to terms with your weaknesses as well.
6. Pursue a goal. Now that you have accepted who you are, you can start thinking about going forward. Having a goal (any goal) inspires happiness because it gives you a reason for being. Working toward a goal will excite you and make you happy as every day you get closer to that goal.
7. Spend time with the people you love. The people you love and who love you are some of the best sources of happiness for your life. They love you for who you are so they must see something special in you. Embrace what they see and what they love so you can be happy.
8. Have fun. Lighten up. Don’t take yourself so seriously that you forget to laugh and have fun.
9. Do something for someone else. There’s no better way to feel good than to help someone who needs it. Take a meal to a friend who is ill or just buy a stranger a cup of coffee. Being charitable doesn’t have to mean making a grand gesture. You just have to care about someone else enough to give. In giving, you can find more happiness than you ever found in receiving.

Happiness may be an ideal, but it is an achievable one. If you decide you can be happy and choose to value your own life as it is, you too can be happy.