5 Happiness Habits That Could Turn Your Life Around

Happiness, like wellness, starts on the inside and radiates into the world we experience.

Credit: Thinkstock – Sjale

None of us is a stranger to troubles or challenges. But I believe the purpose, meaning and joy in life come from the same source within each of us and is always accessible. Culturally we are guided to look for these treasures of happiness outside of ourselves where they can never be found, leaving us wondering and wandering. Here are just five habits that turned my life around. They can also help you to attract the happiness you deserve.

1. Be exactly who you are

While we are looking for our ‘life purpose’ we miss the point that we are living it. The heart’s hint here is what you long to do, what makes you happy and when you do it all sense of time dissolves. When you express your essence no one can judge you or find you lacking. You are forever a marvellous work in progress.

2. Express your appreciation and gratitude

When you find delight or fulfillment take a moment in appreciation and gratitude. Life becomes rich with meaning in the accumulation of little simple pleasures too often overlooked in our haste – a hug, a blue sky. No matter our challenges, our days are filled with restorative pleasures when we stop and appreciate them.

3. Let love guide all your thoughts and actions

Duty and obligation override the quiet guide of the heart. Choose relationships, work and activities that are filled with love. Bring love to challenging situations and discover how love unties all knots. Rest your mind in the willingness to love and quiet the chatter of inner criticism and judgment.

4. Rediscover wonder in the moment

We are born full of wonder and the adventure of being, thrilled with the sensory world around us. Once trained to focus on goals – end results – we lose access to the inspiration that abounds around us. When we meet life with a childlike innocence or beginner’s mind we have access to profound awareness and discovery.

5. Forgiveness

Joy is unfettered. It cannot be tied down or tangled in anger, shame or remorse. These emotions are attached to thoughts embedded in the past. Forgiveness is something you do to set yourself free. It does not obviate responsibility for another, but allows clear choice about their continued presence in your life.

Happiness ever after!


Marilyn Harding is the author of Exhilarated Life: Happiness Ever After where she shares her stories over a five-year period starting the year after her husband died and ending with her move from Canada to Greece. You can purchase her book at Amazon, Barnes & Noble or Balboa Press