We often think that big things have to happen for us to be happy, but small changes can make a significant improvement to our quota of happiness. Here are 10 small things you can do. Give it a go, you might start smiling more, feeling a warm glow inside yourself, being more optimistic.

1. Words have power. Avoid using words like ‘hate’, ‘always’, ‘never’, ‘depressed’ to talk about negative events. This just reinforces the misery, and can even increase it. User milder words like ‘don’t like’, ‘sometimes’, ‘unhappy’.
2. Be yourself! We tend to like people who are themselves, who don’t pretend to be something they’re not. Think about the people you like – are they the most beautiful, the most intelligent, the most successful people you know – probably not. So, be yourself and be liked.
3. In important areas of your life decide what you want, and then seek out ways of achieving it. In less important areas of your life choose from what is immediately available. Let some things just be, even if they are not quite right.
4. Can’t let go of emotional pain? Try the homeopathic remedy ‘Natrum Mur’ if you tend to dwell on emotional hurt from the past.
5. Look at the sky. Research has shown that people in hospital make a better recovery if they can see the sky from their hospital beds. Why wait to be ill? Enjoy it now.
6. In a study funded by Mind, the UK mental health charity, 80% of the participants said they felt better (emotionally and mentally) if they cut down on sugar.
7. Anxious? Try drinking lemon balm tea when you’re anxious.
8. Research by Martin E. P. Seligman found that volunteers who wrote and presented a letter of gratitude to someone they had never properly thanked were significantly happier and less depressed three months later. Try it yourself.
9. “Write the bad things that are done to you in sand, but write the good things that happen to you on a piece of marble.” Arabic proverb
10. If you’re depressed, it could be because you’re deficient in some B vitamins particularly thiamin, niacin and folic acid.

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