How to Kick-Start Your Pursuit of Happiness

By Janice Taylor

As a life coach and author, I have worked with thousands of people who are searching for their life happiness. My work is to move them toward their authentic selves, helping them to generate enough happiness to light up all of Las Vegas and Times Square combined!

What I've seen is that people who 'fill up on happiness' are more likely to naturally take actions that move them in the direction of their goals. They also tend to burn more calories, and attract happy and successful people into their lives.

What do I mean by 'fill up on happiness?' I mean choose to find happiness—not negativity, gossip, mind-numbing TV shows, or empty calories—in the world around you. The following tips, techniques, and happiness quotes should get you started.

Find out what happiness is for you. At the end of this gallery, print out and create your own 'Happiness Circle!' Your joyful journey starts now...

Take Action, Take Heart

Happiness resides not in possessions and not in gold, the feeling of happiness dwells in the soul. -- Democritus (460?-370? BC)

Focus on the chase, the process, the journey—not the end result! At the end of the day, happiness is not about the big house, the money, or the material goods. The thrill is in the satisfaction of pushing our envelope and working hard. Happiness lives in the meaning and purpose we find in our lives. Melt into the process. Enjoy the ride. Happiness guaranteed!

Find Something to Celebrate Every Day

There are two ways to live: you can live as if nothing is a miracle; you can live as if everything is a miracle. -- Albert Einstein

Celebrate a creative idea, your brilliance, your authentic style, your family, and/or your clean closets! Celebrate anything and everything that brightens your heart. If you find one thing to celebrate every day, your mind will soon automatically search for things to celebrate. Imagine that... your mind on automatic pilot, searching for happy things to celebrate.

Open Your Heart and Forgive

Forgiveness is a funny thing. It warms the heart and cools the sting. -- William Arthur Ward

One needs to expend an awful lot of energy to hold onto anger and resentment. And at the end of the day, who is it hurting? Certainly not the people to whom you are directing your bitterness and hostility. Those negative feelings are swirling through your own psyche and body. So let them go and enjoy a path toward feeling lighter, freer, and happier. In the end, you could consider forgiveness the best kind of selfish act, as it benefits you as much as anyone else.

Give Yourself Credit

The truest greatness lies in being kind, the truest wisdom in a happy mind. -- Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Rather than focusing on what you haven't achieved (and believe me, we all could create quite the list), why not focus on what you have accomplished and give yourself credit where credit is due? No holds barred. No thoughts that negate your triumphs or happy moments.

Right now, write down your successes, your favorite memories, and things you are thankful for. You can even project happy happenings into the future. Feel that happy energy swirling upward?

Color Yourself Happy

Spring is when you feel like whistling even with a shoe full of slush. -- Doug Larson

According to a study from the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam, adults reported feeling happier when in the presence of the colors green and yellow. On our deepest levels, these glorious spring colors remind us of sunshine, spring fields and happiness. Don't underestimate the power and importance of your physical environment - your home, your office and your car – anywhere you live. Paint it happy!

Shake Your Booty

Movement is a medicine for creating change in a person's physical, emotional, and mental states. -- Carol Welch

Exercise stimulates the brain to release endorphins and increases the production of the neurotransmitter serotonin, the body's natural mood elevator! Schedule 30 minutes a day to get out there and shake it, baby! Walk, dance, run, jump up and down, twirl in circles... move any way you can and feel happy.

Clear Space for Happiness

Many men go fishing all of their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after. -- Henry David Thoreau

Get those unpleasant, little, pesky tasks done, now! Go on, I said now! They are sapping your energy and weighing you down. They are hanging over your head. Free yourself of this mental clutter, and clear space for happiness!

Release Physical Tension

We should consider every day lost on which we have not danced at least once. And we should call every truth false, which was not accompanied by at least one laugh. -- Friedrich Nietzsche

Stress, upset, and negative feelings can register in the body as tight shoulders, stomach cramps, stiff neck, or a headache. Some recommended ways to release this physical tension are to laugh, chant or sing, breathe deeply, get a massage, or sit in a sauna or steam room. It's important to take care of your body in whatever way works for you.

Creative Acts of Kindness

The best way to cheer yourself up is to try to cheer somebody else up. -- Mark Twain

Want to create an upward happiness spiral that not only affects you, but in turn expands and spirals out there (woo hoo!) enhancing the world-wide happiness quotient? Do something nice for someone else! It's that simple. Plant one seed of happiness – just one - and it has the potential to grow and spread. Watch happiness ripple out...

Strengthen Your Gratitude Muscle

Wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving. -- Kahlil Gibran

We can be collectors of injustices – perpetually feeling slighted, empty, and unhappy because of all the injustices (both real and imagined) that have fallen upon us. Or, we can count our blessings, feel joyful and happy, and cultivate gratitude. Every night before you go to bed, jot down at least 5 things that you are grateful for. You may be grateful for the obvious – food, shelter, clothing, a job, or some more subtle things, like smiles from strangers, a ripe piece of fruit, or the bus arriving just as you get to the stop. As you strengthen your gratitude muscle, you'll find that your life is filled with more blessings than you realized.

Practice: Create a Happiness Circle

Sit quietly, close your eyes, and just for a moment or two concentrate on the word happiness. What comes to mind when you imagine feeling happy? What are your associations with happiness?

Write your thoughts in The Happiness Circle. Don't think; just fill your circle with happiness. You may be surprised to note that the simple things in life are what come to mind!