how to experience more happiness in your everyday life

Most of us think of happiness as a scarce commodity, something that we only experience when we participate in certain major milestones or life events such as birthdays, weddings, vacations, and family gatherings. But if we choose, we can make happiness an integral part of our everyday life.

Like success and self-development, happiness is also a journey, not a destination. You can’t postpone your happiness to a limited number of days in the year. Instead, it’s much better to create moments of happiness in your daily routine by converting your everyday mundane tasks, chores and activities into happiness inducing mini-retreats. 

For example, on a recent episode of her daily podcast Before Breakfast, Laura Vanderkam talks about creating a better lunch break. If you think about it, it totally makes sense, as she explains, five hours a week adds up to 260 hours over the course of a year, which is equivalent to more than 30 eight-hour workdays. That’s a lot of time that we can direct towards doing things that bring us joy such as reading books, walking, exercising, learning a new language, working on a blog or building relationships at your workplace. Performing any of these activities will most likely bring more happiness and meaning in your life than eating a burrito while endlessly scrolling your social media feed and/or watching random mindless videos on YouTube.

You can use this principle during other times as well. If you have a long commute to and fro your workplace, why not listen to audiobooks or podcasts during that time? If you’re about to fold your laundry for the week ahead, why not watch or listen to a comedy show as you do that? How about getting your family together and starting a new tradition to declutter and tidy up your home every Friday evening while listening to your favorite songs together?

In addition, you can also join a book club, engage in a recreational sports league, take a class or organize meaningful social gatherings either on weeknights or weekends to bring novelty in your life and increase happiness-inducing experiences. 

The bottom line is that we must be proactive and make conscious efforts to participate in meaningful things and activities that enhance our happiness in our everyday life. This not only prevents our life from becoming monotonous and unexciting, but also reminds us that we have absolute control over how we choose to show up and spend our precious time on this planet.