5 simple ways to increase your happiness

There are a thousand and one takes on how to achieve happiness. Below, I share with you 5 simple ways to quickly increase your happiness. I use most of them myself every day (except point 4, I use that one every two days).

1. Breathe

If you don't breathe, you won't be happy. Really. In fact, studies show that 100% of all happy people breathe.

Ok, now for real. Breathing properly is a lot more important than most people think. Good breathing is deep and very, very sloo-o-o-ow.

Try it right now. First exhale all the air in your lungs. Do it slowly, we're in no hurry.

Now breathe in very slowly. Start filling your lungs from the bottom up. At the beginning, your stomach should bulge out a bit (this shows you're breathing with your diaphragm). Try shifting your position in your chair a bit. Maybe pull your shoulders back. See what lets you breathe in more air.

And then exhale. Ideally, you would exhale for twice as long as you inhale. It allows proper gas exchange in your lungs.

Take 5 deep breaths now. Take your time, I can wait.

2. Express gratitude

I say thanks for all the good things in my life every evening. I don't believe in God, but I found that saying thanks still works. It doesn't matter who you thank. You could thank the God, or your life, or Linus Torvalds, or real small furry creatures from Alpha Centauri.

Gratitude focuses you on the positive things in your life. Then you not only get more happiness out of them, you also get more positive things in your life. What you focus on you get more of. I'm not sure why it works, but it does.

Try it right now. Find 10 things in your life you can say thanks for. Depending on your surroundings and comfort level, you can think it silently in your head, whisper it, or say it out loud. For extra happiness points, you can sing the thanks out loud to the tune of your favorite italian opera (what do you mean you don't have a favorite italian opera?).

I'll start you off: Thanks for having a broadband internet connection. Thanks for having all ten fingers. Thanks for...

3. Express gratitude to other people

It's incredible how a small action or a few words can make somebody's day.

I remember one memory back from my childhood. I was sitting down in a tram. An old grandma came in, so I stood up to let her sit. She was so happy she almost started crying.

You too can do small things to make people happy. For example you can send money to your favorite blogger (wink wink). (I only accept checks mailed by pigeon post. Or alternately, you can give me your credit card number - using smoke signals)

You can also simply use words. The art of saying thanks or complimenting someone is quite simple. Be honest and sincere.

4. Exercise

You probably hear this one all the time. If you already exercise, you can skip to the next point. If you don't, I'll share with you the simplest yet quite effective way to exercise.

All you need is a watch. Now, do push-ups for thirty seconds. Then rest for thirty seconds. Then do push-ups for thirty seconds and so on, until you can't continue.

Once you can't do any more push-ups (it might even be during the first thirty seconds), substitute a different exercise. It can be sit-ups, or squats.

The point is to really get your heart pumping. That will help you achieve most of the benefits of exercising.
Of course, exercising is hard simply because it's not fun. That's why I prefer to combine exercising with the next point. I get most of my exercise in fun ways - like basketball, parkour, or rock-climbing.

5. Do fun things - just because

I repeatedly find that I have the most fun when I stop taking myself seriously. Whether it's getting up to sing karaoke or trying to balance walking on the edge of a curb.

Sometimes we get caught up in being too serious in our lives. We feel we should be doing things because they're useful. Anything that isn't useful isn't worth doing. Of course this state of mind leads to depression and workaholism.

"An ideal day consists of 8 hours work, 8 hours play and 8 hours rest."
- Benjamin Franklin

Do you get 8 hours of play each day? Play is basically anything you do for its own sake. You do it because you feel like it - just because.

I wrote a blog post about a related topic - The REAL reason we use Linux - it's about the fact that we geeks use Linux for the fun of it. We don't really use it because it's secure, or free, or all the other commonly cited reasons. We mainly use it simply because we enjoy tinkering with our system - just because.

Give yourself permission to do fun things. You don't need anyone's approval. Just do fun useless things. Just because.

Outro

You all lived happily ever after.