1. Donate/Do Community Service

Donating is a great way to make others happy by providing them with basic necessities of life. Whether you’re donating food, clothes, or anything of that nature, it will make you feel better as a person, while also helping others. Although this is a great practice in itself, you get a lot more value from your experience when volunteering for an organization. When volunteering, you are able to communicate with the people you are helping directly. You know what you are doing to help, and you also know how they feel after you perform these actions. This, in itself, should leave you feeling generous, and the happiness of others will make your day 1000x better.

2. Make Time for Yourself

Making time for yourself is a huge part of life in general, but it is also something that can improve your daily happiness. Whether you have a million things to do that day or maybe even just one, you should always set aside time to do the things that you love. It can range from having a spa day to browsing through your social media for 10 minutes. Everyone has different practices that make them happy, but, whatever it is that calms you down, you should put it into your daily routine.

3. Write in a Journal Every Night

My friends have been doing this for one of their classes, and it has proven to be very effective. Every single night, you write down how your day went, what you are grateful for, or just about life in general. For their class, they did a gratitude journal, but anything of that nature would work. Writing your thoughts down has proved to be effective by many different types of people because it is a way to decompress and let your feelings out. Similar to writing down your notes, you are able to connect and understand things more when engaging in this act.

4. Exercise

Exercise is a key component of life, and it is something that should be done every single day. For me, I go crazy when I don’t exercise. It is a huge part of my life because without it, I wouldn’t be able to eat the same, feel great, or perform day-to-day activities with ease. Exercise not only helps you to stay fit, but it also boosts your mood and gets you ready for the day. It has been scientifically proven to make people happier when done consecutively, and I have witnessed this first-hand.

5. Focus On the Life You’re Living Now

This has to do with two main ideas. (1) Focus on the life you’re living now, and try not to look at the past or the future. I am being a bit hypocritical on this idea because I am struggling with this at the moment. I like to plan out my entire life, so I started to make my class schedule for the next four years. This made me extremely stressed, and I would definitely not recommend it at all. If you want to look at what your future will be like, start with a basic, general idea. Look at your ultimate goals, or maybe even plan those classes just for the next semester. This also has to do with not living in the past. Occasionally this is okay, but don’t live your life constantly thinking about the past. As a college student specifically, your life is completely different when you walk on campus. You have a new life, new friends, new habits, and much more. I’m not saying to leave your old life behind, but try to live in the moment that you are in now. Now, (2) has to deal with living your life for yourself and not for others. It is easy to get caught up with how others think of you, but this is not healthy. If we constantly live life to impress others, can we even say that it’s our life anymore? Don’t let others control you and definitely don’t give up your way of life because someone else said so.