Happiness: You lot know it when y'all feel it, and you definitely know information technology when you don't. While few of us walk around grin in a constant state of bliss, frequent feelings of sadness are a reason to pause and take stock of why that might be. The contrary of happiness isn't always unhappiness, either; if you're no longer getting a boot out of things that once brought yous joy, that's another major sign that something's amiss.

According to Acacia Parks, the master scientist at Happify, a site that offers "emotional health solutions" crafted with the help of experts in the field, "research suggests that happiness is a combination of how satisfied you are with your life (for example, finding meaning in your work) and how skilful you feel on a day-to-twenty-four hour period basis."

Have you felt like your inner earth'due south a scrap drearier lately, fifty-fifty when you're in good health, employed, and on financially-solid ground? If then, these research-backed strategies tin help you answer the question, "why tin can't I exist happy?"

Starting time, know the difference betwixt "the blues" and depression.

Nosotros've all had our "off" days, but a longer stretch of unhappiness tin can mean it's time to seek professional assistance.

"Unhappiness, can exist a guide and friend, helping us to know ourselves meliorate and become more fully aware of what makes us feel alive and passionate virtually our lives," says Laura Petiford, a licensed marriage and family unit therapist based in Connecticut. But if you experience what the Anxiety and Depression Clan of America (ADAA) identifies as symptoms of depression for at to the lowest degree two weeks, most of the time and on nigh days, Petiford says information technology may exist something more serious.

Meanwhile, "'the blues' are some other normal experience of life, and can accompany a memory, transition, or other loss," according to Petiford. Either way, trying therapy—even if it's an online platform—tin help uncover what you need to move forward, and if you're having thoughts of cocky-impairment, telephone call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline 24/vii at 1-800-273-8255.

Then, stop comparison your life to others.

As life coach and Fix My Life host Iyanla once said, "Comparing yourself to others is an act of violence against your authentic cocky." It's tough to enjoy what you've got when your listen is glutted with thoughts like why don't I have what that person has? That said, the impulse is perfectly natural, if oft unhealthy.

"We're social creatures, profoundly impacted past the presence and influence of the people around us," says life coach Dr. Susan Biali Haas. "It's fundamentally human to closely notice what others are doing and compare that to ourselves."

Trouble is, Haas points out, we're more than likely to zippo in on whatever professional person milestone/diamond ring/happier matrimony a peer is boasting near on Instagram, wherein it of a sudden becomes a bummer if nosotros don't have the same thing. And speaking of Instagram (and Facebook, and LinkedIn)...

"We've all had the experience of existence in a perfectly proficient mood, feeling reasonably content about ourselves and our lives, until we roll through a social media feed," Haas points out. "Suddenly, we meet something that makes u.s.a. feel inadequate or envious. Though your life is still the same good life you had a moment ago, the comparing robs y'all of your peace and contentment, blotting out your adept feelings well-nigh your life."

Quitting social media altogether isn't realistic. Only Haas suggests revamping your Facebook feed settings so you can only see a select group of people's posts (i.e., the people who make you feel like your best self). Every bit for Instagram, "pay attention to what types of posts, or people, tip you into the comparison trap, and curate your feed accordingly if you tin can." Read: Delete the accounts that are slowly poisoning your self-esteem.

Nature will nurture yous.

Spending time in nature can relax yous, reduce stress, and articulate your mind, co-ordinate to John Zelenski, a psychology professor who's studied the connection between happiness and nature. "Short walks are slap-up, but even sitting nonetheless boosts your mood."

Practice gratitude (and and then keep practicing).

Positive psychology research findings have extolled the benefits of gratitude once again and again, simply amid life's very real disappointments, it can be tough to stay grateful. Remember of gratitude as a muscle you've got to work to maintain.

"Whether you go along a gratitude periodical or say a thank you' prayer at bedtime, this focus will help you lot stay centered in all the goodness that fills your life," Haas says.

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Oprah Reads Entries from Her Offset Gratitude Journal | The Oprah Winfrey Show | Ain

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Oprah'due south been singing the praises of a gratitude journal—in which you jot downwards minor things you're grateful for, at least several times a week—since the 1990s. In this 1997 clip from The Oprah Winfrey Testify, Oprah celebrates the avocados she had a spiritual (yet hilarious) connection with on a vacation; now she's got her own avocado orchard.

Interruption free of thinking, "I'll exist happy when..."

"I think the virtually common myth about happiness is the idea that 'I will be happy when," says Sonja Lyubomirsky, psychology professor and writer of The Myths of Happiness: What Should Brand You lot Happy, but Doesn't, What Shouldn't Brand You Happy, but Does. "And so, I'm not happy now, but I'll be happy when I have a infant, or when I finally get married, or move to California, or get that promotion and raise that I've always wanted, or movement into a real house, or lose 20 pounds."

Achieving those goals will bring happiness, Lyubomirsky explains, but people often expect that feeling to last forever when it's typically fleeting: "Eventually, enquiry shows, most people return to their previous happiness baseline."

"People are prone to over-emphasizing how much major life events will change their overall happiness," Zelenski confirms. Then if your post-wedding life isn't the paradise yous'd imagined, that's completely normal.

Exercise your style to better moods.

"Do increases a protein in the brain chosen brain-derived neurotropic gene, or BDNF, that'due south been shown to heighten mental abilities while interim against anxiety and low, says Petiford. She suggests moderate-level intensity workouts like walking, biking and rowing, which have been shown to boost BDNF.

You might've been born with a base of operations happiness level, just you lot can raise it.

"People are not blank slates when it comes to happiness," Zelenski says, explaining that genes and early life experience can inform a person's sense of well being over the class of their life.

One's personality, economic circumstances and habits can contribute to a fixed level of happiness that spans decades: "the happiest 20 year olds are, on boilerplate, the happiest 40, 50, and 60 yr olds," he continues.

That said, you tin work your manner to a somewhat sunnier demeanor ("work" existence the operative word). "This might involve trivial daily exercises, efforts to change habits, or counseling."

Commit acts of kindness on a regular basis.

"Accept you noticed how practiced you feel when you hold the door for someone, or smile and say thank you? Those feelings come from biochemical changes in the brain," Petiford says.

Performing an act of kindness can heave oxytocin, aka "the love hormone," and euphoria-inducing dopamine—so much so that researchers have dubbed it the helper'southward high.

Petiford puts it best: "It makes you lot feel better and the ripple effects benefit those around us. And tin't we all employ a petty more than of that these days?"

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