By Hugo
Published August 5, 2021 – Updated January 9, 2022
Everybody in the world experiences unhappiness occasionally, some more often than others. During these unhappy times, it’s important to realize that there are always reasons to be happy. No matter what’s happened to you, there are things to be happy about.
The goal of this post is to help you realize that there are always positive things that you can focus on, no matter what your situation. While this won’t magically make you the happiest person in the world, it could help you keep maintain a positive mental attitude when times are tough.
I went through studies, examples and asked our readers for the biggest reasons to be happy. In this article, I’ll go through the 10 reasons to be happy that stood out the most.
The power of gratitude
Before I start, I want to share some information about the power of gratitude.
Searching for reasons to be happy is basically a big part of practicing gratitude. It’s about focusing on positive things, rather than letting yourself feel low because of negative circumstances. It may sound overly simple and meaningless, but finding reasons to be happy is one of the simplest ways to practice gratitude. It helps you maintain a positive mental attitude, even when times are tough.
There are a lot of studies that have proven the impact that gratitude can have on your happiness. We’ve written an entire article about the powerful relationship between gratitude and happiness, which covers why gratitude is linked to a 10% increase in happiness.
Finding reasons to be happy makes you 10% happier
One of the most well-known studies on gratitude was conducted in 2003 by Robert Emmons and Michael McCullough. They conducted a study in which they surveyed 192 participants – split into 3 groups – that were subjected to different situations. They were all asked to rate how they felt via a combination of 30 factors at the end of each day on a scale from 1 to 5. The answers were used to calculate a subjective well-being rating.
