A big key to our own happiness lies in making people around us happy and helping others. Try starting your day with the intention of making it a good day for someone else. It could be something as simple as giving someone a big smile, have a meaningful conversation with a person who’s feeling a little lost or lonely. It doesn’t matter what you do, but do something today to make someone else’s day a little brighter.
How does that make you feel? Pretty good feeling isn’t it? When you start to think about it, it makes sense, doesn’t it? We are social creatures who must work together to truly thrive. It is only logical then that helping those around us has an internal rewards system built in. Our own happiness goes up when we improve the lives of others.
A great strategy to increase your own happiness is to spread a little cheer. Put a big smile on your face—even when you don’t feel especially cheery, just moving those smile muscles actually makes you feel better. It’s hard to do this kind of stuff when you’re feeling sad and depressed. But those are the times you need to push yourself to do it the most. By simply smiling, your own mind causes the feel-good neurotransmitters dopamine, endorphins and serotonin to be released. This increases the happiness you feel and that gets mingled with a feeling of pride for helping someone else.
As with many of the other strategies we’ve been discussing about boosting your happiness, the key to making this work is to make it a habit. If it becomes well established in your daily routine to make someone’s day as you go about living your life, you’ll automatically start to do it, even when (and especially when) you don’t feel like it. Those are the times when you particularly need to do something to raise your own happiness and give yourself that little extra boost.
Start by thinking about a few different little things you can do to make someone’s day. It doesn’t have to be anything big or complicated. Instead focus on small acts of kindness that you can do every single day. Bless your loved ones with this kindness, or complete strangers who look like they could use a little cheering up. Help someone unload groceries, fix a meal for a neighbor who needs a little help, or bring your spouse coffee in bed. Chocolate all around! All these small acts of kindness will start to make a huge difference in you and the world around you.
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