What is it that makes you happy and contented? Although happiness and life satisfaction are relatively new areas of psychology study, research suggests that it’s not external objects like cars, luxury homes, and all the must-have gadgets money can buy that make people happy, but rather internal factors like good health and an optimistic, hopeful outlook.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, the eighteenth-century playwright, had nine requisites for a happy, contented life. First was health, in order to make work a pleasure. Then came wealth to support one’s needs. Other factors in his list included strength to deal with difficulty, grace to confess and abandon sin, patience, charity, love, faith, and hope.
What does it take for you to feel that things are going well and that you are flourishing? These are ideas worth examining, for the answers reveal how you can have a happier life. We’ve put together 100 different ways you can explore happiness in your own life through simple activities, thoughts, and actions.