People who are happy tend to have more happiness receptors (serotonin, among other chemicals) in their brains. Here is a link to a great article about the happiness, motivation, anti-anxiety and anti-depression chemicals we can produce for ourselves.
Exercise is one way to increase these receptors and I talk about some ways to get more exercise into your life in Steps 42 and 47. Another way is to practice meditation or self-hypnosis daily. You can find a pre-recorded session on youtube. Here is one of mine. Or you could purchase a self-hypnosis recording. Here is the link to mine. OR you can create one of your own. The steps I recommend are listed below.
You can record yourself saying the steps to yourself for a deeper session.
- Get in a comfortable position, preferably sitting up or reclining. If possible have only one or two places where you do this, so your subconscious begins to associate them with relaxation.
- Close your eyes and start out by focusing on your breathing.
- If you like, use soothing music or the sound of ocean waves or white noise to aid your relaxation.
- Take a deep breath and as you exhale, imagine that healing energy, in a color of your choice, is coming in through the top of your head and then pushing any negative thoughts, beliefs, feelings or experiences out through the bottoms of your feet.
- Repeat step #4 three more times or until you can imagine yourself filled up with the healing color from your brain cells to your toes.
- It may also help you to count down from 10 to 1 while you are doing this. (Use the same routine every time you practice self-hypnosis and you will notice it taking less time for you to go to deeper levels of relaxation.
- Once you get down from 10 to 1 or see your body filled up with color, you can do one of the following:
- a. imagine that you are the happiest person on the planet. What would you be saying to yourself? What would you be doing? Who would you spend your time with? How does it feel?
- b. go to your happy place in your mind. Maybe that is the happiest childhood memory you have or maybe it is a place you are creating now in your imagination.
- c. connect with your higher self or a spirit guide and discuss how to be more happy with them. then just wait for the answers.
- Stay in this place for as long as you like. If you are recording it, you can count yourself back up when you are ready.
Try this for a week or a month and journal your results. Every day give yourself a happiness score from 1 (dismal) to 10 (ecstatic) and see how you do.