5 Simple Steps To Enhance Your Happiness

If you want to be happy, be. ~Leo Tolstoy

We have all been hearing and reading so much about Happiness.
How to find happiness? How to be Happy?
This is not going to be one of those articles where I tell you how to find happiness…

Why? Simply cause I believe happiness is within each and every one of us. We need not look for it elsewhere. We don’t need to search for happiness, because it can never be found!

How do you really find something that isnt lost in the first place??

Happiness can be self controlled and enhanced through certain practices.  A large portion of being happy comes from our own power to change. Change is usually a good thing, especially, if you’re in a dormant not-going-anywhere kind of situation.

So today I will give you 5 simple steps/practices that will enhance and improve your happiness quotient:

  1. Be Grateful:
    Write letters of gratitude to people who have helped you in your life.  Maybe it was something small or something big…but write that letter. Email or Text the gratitude note or letter. Its my guarantee, you will experience a lasting and increased sense of happiness. But you wont know till you try it!
  2. Be Optimistic:
    Everyday before you go to bed or while you meditate, visualize an ideal future for yourself. For example-living with a loving and supportive partner or finding a job that is fulfilling. You can visualize whatever you want and describe that vivid image in a  journal entry. After doing this for a few days: one- the universe will start positively aligning things for you, two- you will have an increased feeling of well being.
  3. Count Your Blessings:
    Practice writing down three great things that have happened to you over the week. You might have met someone nice or might have bought something new. You being alive and breathing is a blessing too. You living and experiencing this wonderful life is a blessing too. Write it down and see the heightened state of euphoria you feel after you do. You will start noticing blessings you didn’t even know you already had!
  4. You have strengths, Use them:
    Take time to think about your strengths. You might be loving, giving, nurturing, helping, a good friend, a good person, a good host/hostess, great at your job, great with kids…the list is endless. Identify your strengths and then make use of these in your daily life. Everyday will become a blessing you will want to write about in your gratitude journal.
  5. Commit acts of kindness:
    Helping others also helps ourselves. Donate some time or money to charity. Better still be kind, help and assist people in need. Watching another person smile because of something you did, is the best feeling in the world! You will miraculously feel your worries vanishing, only to be replaced by a heightened soulful sense of happiness.

Simple, isnt it?

Now go ahead and gently introduce these practices in your life. You deserve every ounce of happiness you can garner from this wonderful life.

You live but Once!

Now its your turn…Do you have any practices to share, which have helped you enhance your happiness quotient? Please share your thoughts and experiences in the comments.

with love Zeenat

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62 thoughts on “5 Simple Steps To Enhance Your Happiness

  1. Hi Z …You have surely simplified these great tips, and I love the whole concept of gently introducing each step into our daily life’s. ……Happiness comes when your work and words are of benefit to yourself and others~ Buddha.. 🙂

    1. Hi Fatima,
      These steps are so simple yet if you force yourself to do them…they might not bring you the desired results. Hence gently baby steps is the way to go…
      Thats a beautiful quote by Buddha…acts of kindness all the way!
      Thank you for your wonderful comment 🙂
      Much Love~

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    1. Hi Den,
      You know my dad always said “all good things in life are free”…happiness rolls much the same way.
      I am glad you liked these simple steps. Thank you for sharing your wonderful thoughts here 🙂

  4. You’ve hightlighted some of the best simple ways I know of to increase happiness – thank you. And I love your invitation to “gently” bring these tools into our lives.

    For a while I had a practice of paying 10 compliments a day. This brought together gratitude, counting blessings, optimism ( I often ended up looking at the bright side of things because I was looking for things to compliment), and kindness.

    The things that happened out of my compliment conversations were absolutely the highlights of my week. Seeing so many faces light up, or relax, or tear up because of a simple compliment. I gave compliments to strangers (“that’s a great color on you” or ones that took more courage like “I love your sense of style” or “you have an amazing way with your kids”) and to people I knew – often following up on a meeting or time with a friend with a quick note saying what I so appreciated about them.

    I often fell short of my goal of 10 compliments a day, but that high goal kept me stretching – so even when I only found 3 or 4 or 5 opportunities, that still had a huge impact on the quality of my day.

    Thanks Zeenat!

    1. HI Sophia,
      I love the 10 compliments a day rule!
      The Greater higher goal is always the driving factor….and thats what we truly need to strive for. Its what makes life so wonderful to live and witness…
      But i can understand how we can fall short…I thought of a little plan…how about if we compliment ourself and our families..the people who we stay with. Will certainly complete the 10 compliments rule and everyone feels good and happy..:)
      What do you think?
      Thank you so much for sharing your beautiful tips and thoughts here. I really appreciate it 🙂
      Much Love~

  5. Hi Zeenat

    What a truly beautiful post. The quote from Leo Tolstoy added so well to all that you have said. It really can be that easy, but of course we have to choose it. Happiness really is a choice, but I think a lot of people still struggle with it, as they do not realize that it is within their control.

    So the tips you added are wonderful. I love them all and as I read them I realized that I love living them out in my own life. The one that I would say can be most powerful (even though they all are) is the last one about doing acts of kindness. Really something as simple as holding a door for someone, or inviting someone for lunch, or volunteering at a shelter – all of these things really have the power to transform our state of being as we interact with another and express the best of ourselves with them.

    Thank you for this uplifting message 🙂

    1. HI Evita,
      Lovely to see you here !
      Enhancing happiness can be so simple…yet making the choice is the first and most important step.
      And you know Gratitude and acts of kindness are my two favs too! Somehow we can never go wrong with even the smallest of kind gestures…its that serene feeling of knowing all is fine..and you were the catalyst for somehow making it all fine….Euphoria is more like it 🙂
      Thank you fro your lovely lovely comment here!
      Much Love~

    1. HI Suzy,
      I am so happy this had the positive impact i was hoping it would 🙂
      Thank you fro stopping by and sharing your beautiful thoughts here!
      Much Love~

  6. Hi Z,
    Like Evita, when I really do the “acts of kindness” – especially when spoken directly from my heart – this is very much a place where I draw happiness from. I also find it in moments of stillness, when I just quiet myself and “be” with the moment.

    And being in that place of joy and happiness is such a good place to be. When that happiness is a deeper internal happiness – it’s something that feels good all the way to my soul….

    1. Hi Lance,
      Quite moments of stillness are a rare gift….and when you can feel your acts bringing you peace and tranquility…there is nothing as magnificent as it! Joy and happiness will just so naturally become you…
      I am so so glad you are so heart centered. Makes living a superb experience…no wonder you can car dance like you do 😉
      Much Love~

  7. Great tips….wonderful….I am a reformed “glass is half empty” person to living a life of joy, and each one of these tips is priceless.

    1. Hi Jeanne,
      Ahhh…a fellow Converted Optimist…YAY you for coming to the better happier side 🙂
      I am so glad you enjoyed this post.
      Thank you for sharing your wonderful thoughts here 🙂
      Much Love~

  8. Hi Z, I so agree with this article. The steps you outlined here are really designed to shift our focus in a direction that helps us recognize the existing reasons we all have to be happy. We have so many blessings. Focusing on our blessings paves the way foe a grateful and happy heart.

    1. Hi Jonathan,
      Counting our blessings makes us look at the positive rather than the negatives….hence changing our perception..and as you said shifts our focus to the existing happiness we all carry within us.
      Thank you for your beautiful comment 🙂

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  10. Hi Z.
    I just donated $50 to the Girl Scouts who are making boxes to send to our troops. I got an email stating this woman who does this every year with the girls was having trouble cuz donations were very slow. I figure I made her day when she got the mail;)

    Now I don’t like to often tell people what I do and not even my hubs knew but as I was reading your list…I remembered. I love to give anonymously.

    1. HI Tess,
      Most religions and spiritual schools say to give give give…whether its love or money or time…but the best kind of giving is giving without recognition, cause then there is no ego or ulterior motive involved.
      Yay YOU! Thank you for sharing this Tess..I know many people will be very encouraged by reading your words.
      Much Love~

  11. Hi Zeenat .. what a lovely post and your words of gently introduce these practices into your life .. thank people for things, say please and thank you – but I love your 5 .. my mother was telling me to be optimistic about the cold – she hadn’t been able to hear for a month … and suddenly out a stroked mother’s mouth come pearls of wisdom – brought us both laughter! Counting my blessing is something I do regularly and advise others .. and be positive, so many others are so much worse off than we are.

    It’s a great post and your gently, gently .. is a lovely soft drip mechanism for ongoing nutritional feeding into our thought system .. Thanks so much .. Hilary

    1. Hi Hilary,
      Mothers are so wise na…they know exactly what to say to make us daughters see the right way…:) Big hug to your mum from me…Optimism is such a wonderful gift…somehow it puts everything else into perspective.
      So glad you liked this gentle post 😉
      Much love~

  12. Zeenat,

    5 great steps to the happiness we are carrying round with us. I particularly like the gratitude; I feel it’s so important because we often over look the things we should be grateful for. Some of these are small events in our lives that are easy to forget. Spending a few moments each day to show gratitude is so rewarding.

    Thank you for sharing this list.

    Regards

    Paul

    1. Hi Paul,
      Isnt being grateful awesome! It works both way..you can be grateful for somethings and then you can be grateful and thank the people in your life…both put together work wonders 🙂
      Glad you liked this 🙂

  13. Hi Zeenat, my favorite is using your strengths though all other points are equally important. I think that sometimes we forget about our strengths and start focusing on things we lack or things that others consider important. It is important to throw away those limiting beliefs and use every ounce of strength that we can find inside. I think that these strengths can help with all other points that you have mentioned in your list.

    1. Hi Zeenat, I would have to say 3 and 5 are the most powerful ways for me to work in. I really am blessed with my wife and two sons and my extended family and friends including online friends 🙂

      Great article Zeenat.

      1. Hi Steven,
        Am glad you liked this article 🙂 Mostly cause its almost the first time I have attempted to write a list. Though short its a start…who knows I might attempt a 100 list like you and Dragos someday 😉
        Much Love~

    2. Hi Ana,
      I think youre right! Strength within our ourself can immensely change our lifes perception and can more naturally bring about happiness.
      Thank you so much fro sharing your beautiful thoughts here 🙂
      Much love~

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  15. Beautiful and simple. All of these happiness enhancing steps are available to each of us and in many ways, so much easier to follow than the opposite. I love that you close by reminding us that we all deserve every ounce of happiness we can have. Thank you.

    1. Hi Belinda,
      How wonderful to see you here 🙂
      I often think that all the good things in life are free and readily available…and enhancing your happiness is relatively cheap…but oh so enriching..right!
      Thank you for sharing your lovely thoughts here 🙂
      Much love~

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  17. HI Z,

    For me they work all together.
    When I am grateful, acts of kindness come easy and they make me optimistic and count my blessings. They all reinforce each other for me and as a result I find my strength as I go looking for them feeling good rather than looking for my weaknesses because I feel low.
    I like overlap and leverage.

    xox Wilma

    1. Hi Wilma,
      Now thats an awesome chain reaction we all need to start having YESTERDAY!
      No fun focusing on weaknesses when there are so many blessings to count right 🙂
      Thank you for sharing your beautiful optimistic thoughts here 🙂
      Much love~

  18. Hi Zeenat,

    These are all great tips. I’m big on writing that which I’m grateful for. As time has passed I find it’s those little things that I’m most grateful for – not the material things.

    And practicing acts of kindness. There’s nothing like it. That’s something that really warms my heart.

    I agree with what you said, we find happiness within. It’s just a matter of uncovering it.

    BTW: You site looks fabulous. I love the addition of the butterflies. They make me smile. 🙂

    1. Hi Barbara,
      thanks for the lovely compliments on the site 🙂 but seriously, it pales in comparison to your new site ..
      Uncovering happiness is such a wonderful process…and kindness seems to be soften the heart and enhance happiness like no other.
      Thank you fro your beautiful comment here Barbara. I truly appreciate it !
      Much Love~

  19. Beautiful Zeenat!

    This is such a great list — and I’ve seen it work in my life, and heard friends who used to be angry all the time tell me it’s worked in theirs.
    Gratitude, especially, is all powerful, so I really love that one. Whenever I give thanks for what I have, I draw more of it into my life. What a cool thing!

    And committing acts of kindness is a topic that’s near and dear to my heart, as you know. It keeps the energy of love & generosity flowing in our lives – and what we give, we get back tenfold. What a beautiful universe we live in!

    Much love & blessings for a perfect day!
    Megan

    1. HI My Joyful Angel,
      I agree with you completely…Its so amazing that the more we give, be it money, time or love…the more we get back..God is indeed all knowing 🙂 The universe just has to comply…;)
      Lots of love and blessings to you too 🙂
      Z~

  20. Hi Z! So perfectly put! Really! This would make a great poster to hang on the wall as a reminder every single day! And of course I loved the picture with the butterflies! I’m rather partial to their delicate nature and gentleness – much the way I think of you too! 🙂

    You know, those five things on your list when incorporated into each day will not only bring you joy, and help you spread it around, but that KIND of thinking keeps you young! I’m all for all of that! 🙂

    hugs
    suZen

    1. Hi Suzen,
      Wowwieee….you like the butterflies! They are like my new favorite creatures…cause of their delicate and loving nature.Much like what this blog is all about..hence the header has that little butterfly too 🙂
      I like the idea of making a poster of this…I think constant positive affirmations like this really do work wonders.
      And my dear, youre just as young as your heart and mind are…so be happy..and rejoice in your new found beauty 😉
      Hugs to you too ~

    1. Hi Stephen,
      So glad you agree with me here. Our happiness is built in…its in our very nature….just uncover and rejoice!
      Thank you fro stopping by and sharing your wonderful words 🙂

  21. This one really touched me, Z. I have been doing some of these things more and more, and I can say that they truly do bring my happiness to the surface. Thanks for being you. Many blessings to you.

    1. Hi Jill,
      Yay You! I am happy youre already doing many of the things in this list. It just goes to show how really happy and at peace you are from the inside. Keep it up!
      Thank you fro sharing your beautiful words here 🙂
      Much Love~

  22. Great suggestions on how to remember our innate happiness. Creating awareness is key, once we increase our awareness we begin to understand all that we seek we already have.

    1. HI Tobeme,!
      Wise words my friend! I completely agree…we are all looking externally to fulfill our desire to be happy..but infact its all right inside of us. Just this knowing is somehow so so empowering..
      Thank you so much for stopping by and sharing your beautiful thoughts. Appreciate it 🙂

  23. Hi Zeenat
    Great list to remind us how lucky we are.
    Which one would I pick as the most important?
    Got to be “Count Your Blessings”

    So many blessings to count. Some big some small but oh so many.
    Thanks for the reminder.

    1. Hi Keith,
      I am glad you liked this list 🙂 Counting your blessings makes you appreciate everything so much more….Great choice to pick that one!
      Thank you so much fro stopping by and sharing your lovely thoughts here 🙂

  24. S.R.Ayyangar

    …….finally thank the God for having given you the strength , courage and conviction to put all these in to practice. Sometimes it becomes very difficult to follow even when you feel good while reading!

  25. patrick c

    Hello, I think your writing is brilliant and uplifting. I am wondering if you would mind if I try to translate it to my own language(swedish) because I think the unhappy people of sweden need to read things like this.

    best regards,

    Patrick C

  26. I think to “commit acts of kindness” require us to have faith and trust in strangers. No point worrying about people scamming us whenever we donate a single cent. It is better to believe that we are helping others than to believe we fall victims to cheaters.

    1. HI Schengi,
      I like your approach. Giving and committing acts of kindness without worrying about who and what….thats being optimistic..and that the way we should live! Let the universe take care of the good and bad…Let us just be happy 🙂
      Thank you for your lovely comment here 🙂

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  30. I would like to add the 6 one, which is total surrender to God, which makes you free of all worries.

    ‘I am helpless myself, God alone is all powerful, and except by throwing myself completely on Him, there is no other means of safety for me’

  31. Another point that helps in being happy for me is to enjoy the simple things in life such as watching the sun rise in the morning, enjoying the breeze, watching birds fly by.

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