Is anybody truly happy? Do you know what being really happy means and how to achieve that level of happiness? Not many people do, I can assure you but so many claim to be.  The thing is, happiness is personal, or at least levels of happiness are. What makes your friend happy won’t necessarily have the same effect on you.

Many people if asked will tell you that they do not deserve to be happy.  They believe that unhappiness is their due and that is the way they should live their lives. Happiness does not just happen. You have to make it happen and, to help you along the way, I have drawn up a few tips that will, at the very least, get you started on the road to being a happier person.

• First, you must have an understanding of what will actually make you happy. That’s you, not everyone around you.  Each person is different and has different things that make them happy. Be the individual that you are and don’t spend any time worrying about whether you are upsetting someone else or not. If you’re not sure what makes you happy, some great sites for helping you understand what makes you happy are: Buddhanet, Vedanism, and TED.

• Once you know what makes you happy, start researching ways you take control of those areas of your life. Does being in a relationship make you happy? Study techniques for improving your relationships. Does achieving great feats at work make you happy? Become a better employee or learn how to start your own company. Does doing extreme sports make you happy? Start learning about how you can get more involved in them. Take control and start taking action.

• Get planning. Write down a list of goals that you think will lead to your happiness. Be honest, and only set yourself goals that are attainable, goals that you know you can make happen.  As you try to reach each goal, your mood will improve, simply because you are doing something that makes you happy.

• Make sure you spend time with people that are happy.  If you constantly surround yourself with negative people, it will wear off on you and you will become more and more unhappy. Being around people who are happy will also wear off on you and you will find that happiness is infectious.

•  If things go wrong, don’t spend your time wallowing in that emotion that is the lowest – self-pity. Allow yourself a minute or two to regret that things didn’t go as you planned and then move on. Look for a solution and a way to make things right and you will soon be back to your happy go lucky self.

•  Take some time every single day to think happy thoughts. Think about those things that make you truly happy. This will have the effect of focusing your mind on the positives in life instead of the negatives. Positivity is equal to happiness.

•  Take some time every single day to do something for you.  Take yourself off out to lunch somewhere nice or relax in a long hot bath when you get home from a long day at work.  Even just spending an extra few minutes on the way you look can lift your mood significantly.

•  While you have to be serious at some points in your life, it is always a good thing to look for the funny side in some situations.  Make jokes about certain situations that would normally drag you down and you will notice that you are able to deal with it much easier and that you will be happier for it.

•  Be healthy. Eating a diet that is full of sugar or living on a junk food diet is a surefire way to bring your mood down.  It’s a vicious cycle – you are unhappy so you eat badly. Eating badly causes your weight to skyrocket, which, in turn makes you unhappy. And so it goes on.  Making a change to your diet and getting out and exercising on a regular basis is guaranteed to have a positive effect on your happiness.

•  The most important point is to understand that you do deserve to be happy. Tell yourself that every day. If you feel that you don’t deserve happiness, subconsciously you will do everything you can to wreck any happy parts of your life.

Happiness is the key to our survival and understanding what makes you happy is the first step. Telling yourself that you deserve that happiness is an ongoing step and will lead you to a richer and more fulfilling life.