What Does Happiness Feel Like?

True happiness is the combination of positive emotions and the feeling that life matters in some way. This could be through the things we do at work that we value, participating in fun activities, making a difference in the world, or building stronger connections with others. To learn more about the skills you can develop to increase your happiness, Take our well-being quiz.
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Try this activity to discover what happiness looks like for you.

When we imagine events, our brain processes them as if they were real. Our brains have trouble telling the difference. This means that if we imagine situations that make us happy, we can gain insight into what happiness looks like. If we do this often, we can actually do it Feel happier in the future.

To give you an idea of ​​how this works and feels, let’s do a happiness visualization exercise.

Update: After reading your feedback on our original happiness exercise and realizing that it’s still difficult to understand what happiness looks like, we’ve added a new and improved happiness exercise with audio. If you want to try the original exercise, you can still find it at the bottom of this page.

THE Visualization Activity can help you generate positive emotions. These positive emotions neutralize the effects of negative emotions and create a feeling of calm and peace.

Press play on the video below. Then close your eyes and listen to the sound that guides you throughout the “Feeling Happiness” exercise. Come back and use it whenever you’re feeling down and need a calming, positive boost.

In this exercise, imagine experiencing happiness.

Before you begin, think about what you want to focus on. You might want to imagine it Stronger relationships with your communityor maybe you want to imagine being more accepting of your negative feelings, or maybe you want to imagine gaining the confidence to live more authentically.
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Try to imagine what it would be like if the following events happened:

1. Think about the people, smells and sounds around you as you experience happiness.
2. Focus on the good feelings you have. What would that do? Who would be there? Where would you be?
3. Imagine how these experiences will make you feel even better in the future.
4. Imagine something else that helps you feel true happiness.
5. Try not to focus on the aspects of your current life that don’t make you happy. Just imagine that you are a happy future version of yourself.

Close your eyes for the next 2 minutes and imagine that you will be happy in the future. After completing the exercise, reflect on your experiences using the box below.

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