100 Most Popular Ways To Be Happy
Here are some of the most popular ways to be happy that I’m sharing with you today. If you are like me I gravitate to happy people. I love to hug people, and that makes me happy and giggle. Life is too short to be around grumpy people. Mark and I have moved a few times to different cities and neighborhoods over the years because of job opportunities, outgrowing the home, or other reasons. I wish I had stayed in one certain home, but life brings changes we don’t expect. I have always said, “you can’t buy your neighbors.” Wow, is this ever true, for good or bad.
Do you get frustrated by what you see on the television news? I sure do. Do you get tired of the rants on FaceBook? I do. Here’s the deal, if all we read, hear or see online is sad, mean, grumpy, rants, or negative words, we need to consider quitting watching them. I am. I don’t need this is my life. Is the news important, yes, I do need to keep up on what’s going on in the world, but not every day? I’m done with it. If the stuff you are hearing, reading or listening to is a “Debbie Downer” moment, let it go. You will be a whole lot happier, I promise.
Ways To Be Happy
- Smile
- Giggle
- Hug someone you love
- Hug a friend
- Meet a friend for lunch
- Have friends over to play cards or board games
- Fix dinner for a family with sickness
- Join a community civic club that helps your city
- Help at the food bank
- Find a church that serves food to the needy (they need help) on Sundays (St. George, UT has a church that does this)
- Go for a walk and look at the clouds
- Get up really early and wait for the sun to rise
- Show up with a bucket of cleaning supplies to help an elderly neighbor clean bathrooms and change bed sheets
- Smile and wave at a neighbor when you get your mail
- Sweep a neighbor’s gutter without telling them
- Pull a neighbor’s weeds without them seeing you
- Put your lawn chairs outside and wait for the sun to set
- Invite neighbors to roast marshmallows over a fire pit
- Walk around the block and look at the beauty that surrounds your neighborhood
- Go golfing, this one’s for Mark
- Clean out your refrigerator
- Do something just for you, yes you!
- Share your cooking skills with neighbors
- Teach people to make bread
- Make cinnamon rolls for a neighbor or two Linda’s no-fail Cinnamon Rolls
- Be kind to people
- Hangout with happy people
- Start a luncheon group that meets weekly or monthly
- Start a coffee group that meets once a week or more
- Ride a bike
- Go jogging
- Go visit a lonely neighbor
- Visit a friend at the hospital
- Send a card in the mail to a friend
- Wash your car
- Paint your toenails, get a pedicure
- Get your haircut
- Call a friend and talk about the good times
- Clean your bathrooms, trust me this makes me very happy
- Sweep the garage
- Clean your kitchen cupboards, donate items you no longer need or want
- Wash your windows, nothing is more awesome than freshly cleaned windows
- Read a book you’ve been wanting to read
- Invite a friend to go to a movie
- Buy one day’s worth of water storage, I recommend four gallons per person per day
- Purchase the food for your family that you would eat for seven days
- Check your flashlights and batteries to make sure they’re working
- Buy a solar flashlight
- Start a budget and keep to it
- Get out of debt
- Start a Christmas saving account
- Start a savings account for a rainy day
- Watch a sports game
- Watch a documentary
- Start a bucket list and check it off as you can afford to do your dreams
- Visit a candy store
- Visit a bookstore
- Go to the library
- Get rid of things that no longer bring you joy
- Declutter your stuff
- Remove items that are on horizontal counters or dressers, less clutter, more happiness
- Do the things that are important to YOU before you can no longer physically do them
- Remember happiness is a choice
- Say no to the things you do not want to do
- Take your dog to the dog park, you will meet awesome people
- Coffee shops have the happiest people on earth
- Volunteer at a hospital gift shop
- Volunteer at your local school
- Give blood to The American Red Cross, you will save a life
- Take a child or grandchild to a park
- Ride your bike
- Consider learning a new language
- Say a prayer
- Send a condolence card
- Update your Christmas card list
- Contact a friend from high school or college
- Take a hot shower
- Go swimming
- Help a neighbor move
- Take a college extension class – learn something new
- Eat your favorite dessert
- Get your puppy groomed
- Make a new wreath for your front door
- Polish your shoes
- Send a thank you note
- Write someone you know in the military or who resides in a rest home
- Call your grandma, grandpa or lonely aunt or uncle
- Watch your favorite old movie
- Volunteer at the local school – tutor
- Sing in the shower
- Stop a bad habit
- Get out of debt
- Apologize to someone you upset
- Return something you borrowed
- Finish this week’s to-do list
- Dust that knick-knack shelf
- Change the batteries in your smoke alarms
- Tell your spouse – significant other you love them more than ever
- Say thanks to your mail delivery person
- After all this, sleep in next Saturday
Please note some of these ideas to be happy may cost money, but many are FREE to do. Please tell me the things that make you happy and I will add them to my list. May God bless our world.
Happiness is a Choice by Linda
I agree with every one of these ideas and do many of them. I am , it seems, always happy.
Hi, Lady Di, I love your comment, keep the world smiling! Linda
If cleaning the bathroom makes you happy come to my house. I have 3 teen-aged boys & their bathroom will leave you in hysterics! Lol
Hi, Linda S. Oh how I love this comment! I actually love cleaning bathrooms and if you live close by we can do them together! I can picture us giggling together, love it! Linda
When I think of all we have, it makes me happy and grateful. We have a paid for small old house. We have a roof over our heads. We have healthy children. We now have a year’s worth of food to eat. We live in the greatest country on earth! We have diversions. In the old days there weren’t too many diversions as people spent their entire days doing enough work to eat. We are not rich people to the folks around us who have to have new cars or fancy clothes or exciting vacations on credit cards; none of us ever had Nike shoes, big house or new cars or credit cards, but to us, we are so wealthy to have the things we have and to have such an excess that we can tithe and be generous without genuine sacrifice. Thinking on these things gives me a lot of happiness and gratitude.
Hi, Debbie, you are my hero today! You are a blessed woman! You are the example people need to follow. A happy life is not “stuff”. I’m so glad you touched on so many items today because you and I must be twins and we didn’t know it. I LOVE LOVE LOVE all your words today. I heard something the other day that said people collect “stuff” for 2/3’s of their lives only to get rid of the “stuff” the last 1/3 of their life. I have people ask me how Mark and I get by with one car. Well, we don’t need car payments, car servicing for two cars, etc. Plus, we really only need ONE car. Our kids live on their own and we no longer take kids to lessons or school. Life is good when you live with less. Hugs, Linda
Happy New Year, Linda. I’d like to suggest offering to clean friends and co-workers glasses. So much easier to be happy when you can see clearly (metaphorically as well as literally). I also encourage people to look for the joy in each day. It seems like we’re hardwired to notice the negative and for some folks this is really hard but there has to be something, some little thing in everyone’s day to notice and acknowledge as joyful. The more you look, the easier it becomes to find joy. Sometimes I have to remind myself! I remember one morning being so irritated with a driver on a gloomy day when my mood matched the weather. I looked up to see a beautiful rainbow off in the distance and had to knock myself up side the head – I would’ve completely missed the joy if I’d stayed focused on the dippy driver in front of me. We all need some reminding. Thanks for the extensive list!
Debbie, the dippy driver and the rainbow story is the best! You made me smile today, as always! Linda
I don’t like to be around negative people as it pulls me down too! I try to remember all the blessings that we have been given to change the mood. I read an article about life being like a theatre and the actors being your friends. When it is too negative, move them further back in the seating or even out the door. Sometimes the actors have to be retired or replaced.
Hi, Nana, oh I love the statement you made about our life being like a theatre! I have the giggles picturing moving the people who drag me down to the back of the seating area! I love this! Linda
I love spending time outdoors among my goats, horse & cats. The interactions are always changing, frequently entertaining & bring a smile.
Hi, B, oh, I can picture the beautiful world around you interacting with your goats, horse, and cats! My dog brings me smiles! Happy day, Linda
Take a nap!
Hi, Laura, oh naps are wonderful! Linda
I have always been of the mind set, you are only as happy as you allow yourself to be. I choose to accept that life isn’t always a bed of roses. I choose not to let the bad things in life define who I am. I choose to see the good in all things and to know that my God is always by my side. My mom often asks , “why don’t you get mad ? I would be so mad about such n such” .To which I reply, ” why spend time getting upset over something I have no control over?” Happiness is a choice to me. I don’t dwell in the past God is Good, life goes on. Be blessed.
Hi Judy, great, awesome comment! I have a really good friend who has had cancer twice and she never ever says a bad word about anything. She is thankful for the sunrise, the sunset, the flowers, etc. I can go on and on. I LOVE LOVE LOVE being around her. I remember about thirty years ago I was struggling with some serious personal problems and I had a job at a bank. Well, when you are at work, I call it “showtime”. I’m not fake, but none of my customers ever knew I was crying inside my heart. I remember one day, a client said, “Linda you are so happy all the time!”. I didn’t want sadness to be on display, my job was to make people be happy at the bank. Life has been good to me and I feel blessed. I love your comment,” why spend time getting upset over something I have no control over?” Happiness is a choice for me. I don’t dwell on the past God is Good, life goes on. Be blessed. I love this, Judy! Linda
Happiness is an attitude. Some people just don’t have that happiness attitude!! I also think that most things pass – those things that keep us in a perpetual state of unhappiness. There are, of course, many things that give us sadness – illness, death, other major losses, etc. – but sadness is not the absence of happiness. Sadness generally has its season and it passes eventually. Again, I think that happiness is an attitude. Even with sadness, we can have the attitude of happiness.
Now, I do know people who seem to be unhappy with EVERYTHING in their lives. I am passing this list on to those people (well to everyone I know but especially to those who seem unhappy 99.9% of the time). I pray that it helps them cope with things and look for the little things to bring them happiness.
Hi Leanne, I have always said behind every front door there is a story. It may be a good one or it may be a bad one. No one knows what people are going through. We have all had issues in our lives it’s how we rise above them that really counts! Stay well! Linda