27 Ways to Boost Your Happiness

• by HybridMom, on Thu Aug 18, 2011 6:39am PDT

I was emailing with a friend. She was feeling sad and didn’t know what to do about it. I told her the one strategy that works for me whenever I’m depressed. It’s this: make someone else feel better. Depression is a self-absorbed state. If you focus your attention away from yourself and onto others, it lifts.

“Go make someone happy,” I wrote.

She said, “I don’t have anyone to make feel happy.” She was alone in her apartment. The usual homeless guy was not at his usual post. I told her that it’s easier to spread happiness than most people realize. Here are several ways to boost the happiness of others and, by default, your own.

1. Smile and make friendly eye contact when you see people.
2. Open doors for people, especially the ones who are carrying heavy packages or who are trying to pull a wheel chair or stroller through the doorway.
3. Compliment people.
4. Tell people you think their children are beautiful, especially when their kids are misbehaving.
5. Write reviews for the books you read. Reviews, especially positive ones, make authors happy.
6. Call your mother and ask her how she’s doing.
7. Respond to someone’s Facebook update, especially if she or he is having a bad day.
8. Send an email to that friend you’ve been thinking about and tell her how much you’ve been thinking about her.
9. Walk up to your spouse and give him or her a shoulder rub.
10. Tell someone you are sad. Let that person hug you.
11. Sit next to an elderly person at the park. Listen as that elderly person tells you stories.
12. Pet your dog.
13. Cook your kid’s favorite meal.
14. Forgive someone.
15. Leave a small gift for a friend or loved one as a surprise.
16. Leave a small gift for a stranger as a surprise. Leave a dollar on a cab floor, for instance. Imagine how happy the next person will be when he or she finds that dollar.
17. Tell your spouse, “I love you. I’m still glad I married you.”
18. Tell your neighbor that you love his or her yard and gardens.
19. Tell your mother in law that you love her tuna noodle casserole.
20. Tell a blogger that her post rocks.
21. Write an inspirational status update on Facebook.
22. Send a card to a friend.
23. Hand write a letter to a loved one. Thank that person for making a difference in your life.
24. Tell your children that they are smart.
25. Tell your parents that they were good parents and that all of the therapy you’ve done had nothing to do with them.
26. When someone expects you to get mad, don’t.
27. Help your spouse find the milk in the fridge even though he should be able to find it himself.

Written by Alisa Bowman, author of Project: Happily Ever After, for Hybrid Mom

Posted in: 27 Ways to Boost Your Happiness,Depression is a self-absorbed state