How to Be Happy Again

Science continues to study happiness, and it seems many people feel it quite frequently as children, but as time goes on, lose it somewhat during the teens and adulthood, especially after long periods of tough times. Therefore, many people sincerely wonder how to be happy again. Good news! Sciences now knows happiness can be rewired back into the brain no matter what our age to produce the chemicals that bring joy, peace, and help us find wisdom and answers to problems.

Naturally, if anyone has a serious health problem related to a lack of happiness, they should work directly with a professional or seek some of the free programs available (such as Displaced Homemakers for certain women). But others have gradually rebuilt happiness into their lives by making themselves do specific things that start to restructure the brain back to happiness. Changes may seem subtle at first, but happiness wiring starts to hold longer on its own and people can find themselves to be happy again on a daily basis without having to work at it. This eHow article gives you some steps to start the rewiring.

Instructions

1. Give a deserving person a compliment when they're not expecting it. This doesn't mean give an arrogant person more to feed his or her ego. Find someone whom you can sincerely complement, and give it to that person. If you're homebound or shy, go online to sites such as Amazon and put up a good review about an author's book you enjoyed, or find another similar site that you prefer. One USA university has found this act begins to make changes from within us and can help us remember how to be happy again.

2. 

   Go outside for half an hour when the weather is nice. Several hundred people were studied to find their hopefulness and happiness grew from being outside on nice days. No need to worry about stormy weather, just find ways to get out when you can. Of course, it's well known that a half hour walk will do your mood a lot of good, but know that just being outside, even if it means reading the mail or bringing some household chores outdoors to work on can make a positive difference. Sunshine is great for the mood, but even birdsong is being studied as something that helps the brain remember and therefore produce hope and happiness.

3. 

   Interrupt the pattern. Sometimes when happiness seems to be gone, so does our "brain energy" to focus on the mundane. But even just short term, try to give your mind a cheerful game to interrupt the recirculation of unhappy feelings. This gives the mind a window of opportunity to short circuit the negative and research for happiness. Avoid violent video games at all costs, but find happy ones, or make up a quick game while you're on your walk, taking your 30 minutes outside, or hanging around happy people (see below), by simply counting how many birds, butterflies, laughs, or ladybugs you see in the next two minutes. Knowing the game won't take long may help you find the energy to use this trick to stop the pattern and give the mind a chance to revert towards the happiness direction.

4. 

   Get some yellow and orange flowers. The colors of orange and yellow have been shown to boost happiness brain chemicals, and flowers are innately understood by our bodies and brains to be messengers that new life and new hope has arrived. If you can't yet afford a new weekly bouquet, find free or low-cost magazines at library magazine exchanges or thrift shops, cut out large quantities of flower and garden photos that you find beautiful, and cover your refrigerator with them. Most brains started out knowing there's always hope and new possibility, help yours remember and then hold the pattern again.

5. 

   Get near happy people. Sometimes the last thing we have energy to do when we can't seem to feel happy is to have to put on an act while being around other people. Yet it's almost as though other people's happiness can "entrain" our energy field, and we can start to recall happiness, and then produce it ourselves more. To get near happy people yet avoid having to "put on an act" with your usual crowd, or if part of your unhappiness is because friendships are currently low, just go on your own to a free or low-cost public event or demonstration where you're among happy strangers (there's an article in the Resources below that will help you find such places in your area - it's an article on meeting new people, but it will tell you where to find events filled with happy people). If you're energy is high enough, certainly go to such places with positive friends who are good at lifting your mood if you have such a resource.

6. 

   Do this one-week activity which made others' moods shoot up in large amounts: For just one week, keep a daily log of many things that went right for you, including that you weren't diagnosed with any new disease, appliances in your home that are still working, living in a country where there is no war in your particular territory, other cars you passed on the street that stayed safely in their own lane, seeing a pretty butterfly, etc. A seven day university study found this helped participants quickly find much happiness again.

7. Get extra self-help. Sometimes we still need the strength of another person or entity when happiness eludes us. Two methods that so many have had great luck with amidst all the books and theories on happiness are "Feelings Buried Alive Never Die" which gives a practical and easy method to find happiness again, and "Try it on Everything," a book that shows how to interrupt negative brain patterns and create new patterns of happiness. Also, many people have journaled their way back to happiness. The link below leads to a site that helps people do journaling to find happiness again.

Resources

• Public places with happy people
• Journaling as a way to be happy again
• Try it on Everything
• Feelings Buried Alive Never Die