ARTICLE TAKEAWAYS

Happy people pay attention to the everyday experiences that give them pleasure and purpose, then organize their lives so that they are doing more of those things.

1. DO A HAPPINESS AUDIT

   1. Take one day a week/a month and tune in to what you are doing, who you are doing it with and how it makes you feel
   2. Tune into how much worry, stress, anger, joy or contentment do you experience on a given day?
   3. Some changes are bigger in scale: scrutinize your relationship and realize that you are unhappy, it might seem overwhelming to think about leaving your partner.
      1. TIP: be gentle with yourself and not rush into major life changes.

1. DESIGN YOUR LIFE FOR HAPPINESS

   1. Even when we know that certain activities make us happy, our ingrained habits sabotage our efforts to do them.
   2. We might realize that taking an afternoon walk lifts our mood, but because we’re so used to working at our desk all day, it takes effort to pull ourselves away.
   3. We need to deliberately make it very easy to do the things that make us happy because if it’s hard our brain will want to reject it.
      1. TIP: if you love spending time with a certain friend, you could set up a standing weekly or monthly date with that person, so it isn’t a hassle to keep scheduling time to meet.

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