For 21 days, think of three new things you’re grateful for each day, focusing on why you’re grateful. This trains your brain to scan for positives, increasing optimism, improving sleep, relationships, and reducing stress.
Spend two minutes daily writing an email or text praising or thanking a different person. This boosts your social connection score, a top predictor of happiness and longevity, and transforms email into a source of positive engagement.
Meditate for at least two minutes daily, focusing on your breath, a body scan, or walking through old memories. This improves emotional and physical health, focus, and reduces stress, helping you feel more present and content.
Each day, identify one positive, meaningful experience and bullet point three specific details about it for two minutes. This allows your brain to relive and ‘double’ the memory, creating a narrative of meaning in your life.
Do 15 minutes of fun, mindful cardio (like a brisk walk) daily. This is as effective as an antidepressant for the first six months and reduces relapse rates, acting as a ‘gateway drug’ to other positive habits.
Actively build and nurture deep social bonds with family, friends, and community, even considering living closer to loved ones. Social connection is the single greatest predictor of long-term happiness and longevity.
If experiencing depression or hard times, stop trying to handle it alone; open up to your closest friends and family and ask for help. This fosters mutual support, deepens bonds, and helps you recover more quickly.
Understand happiness as ’the joy you feel moving towards your potential,’ rather than constant pleasure. This allows you to experience joy even during difficult times and fuels positive change.
When on social media, actively like and comment positively on others’ posts for about 15 minutes, and limit checking your own likes. This creates positive change for them, energizes you, deepens your social connections, and helps avoid comparison.
Practice gratitude exercises (like listing three gratitudes) with family at dinner or with colleagues in meetings. This deepens social bonds, builds an ’emotional immune system,’ and spreads positivity.
Keep a glass jar and write down good things you’re grateful for on slips of paper, adding them throughout the day. This creates a visual cue of positivity and allows you to revisit forgotten joyful memories.
When praising others, ensure it is authentic, concrete, and specific to an action or quality. Focus on building up real strengths and acknowledging contributions from everyone, not just top performers.
Use gratitude to reframe your life story, focusing on how challenges or setbacks led to positive outcomes and meaning. This shifts your perspective from loss to growth and purpose.
Actively train your brain to scan for positive aspects in every environment, rather than defaulting to threats. This shifts your mental resources and helps you see a fuller, more adaptive reality.
Understand that unhappiness (loneliness, anger, sadness) is not the opposite of happiness but can be a powerful fuel for positive political, economic, and personal change. Allow yourself to feel these emotions as catalysts.
For real, long-term change, ensure positive mindsets (e.g., choosing happiness) are always backed up by consistent behavioral changes and daily habits. Slogans without action are detrimental.