1. food

Eat a small portion of fruit or vegetables several times a day: This is healthy and increases happiness. Healthy foods that are eaten regularly release the feel-good hormone serotonin. Around 500 grams of fruit and vegetables spread throughout the day also boosts your mood.

2. fragrances

It has been scientifically proven that fragrances can create positive feelings - and therefore contribute to our happiness. The scent of orange, for example, has a positive effect on most people, as does vanilla: the scent conveys a feeling of home and familiarity. The scent of your favorite flower or perfume also brightens your mood.

3. exercise

Plenty of exercise and sport stimulate the limbic system - the part of our brain that releases the happiness hormones serotonin or dopamine. These neurotransmitters relax us, making us happier and more balanced. This allows us to tackle difficult tasks more calmly.

4. music

Sounds that we like reach the limbic system via the brain stem and trigger feelings of happiness there. Music accompanies, animates, enchants, soothes and heals us. That's why our favorite songs can infallibly free us from mood lows.

5. goals

Everyone needs goals, but they should be realistic. Anyone who constantly wants to hit the big time will soon be disappointed. But if you keep your feet on the ground and set yourself achievable goals, you are more likely to find satisfaction.

6. friends

Friends are there for us when we are feeling down. They make us feel valuable - an essential prerequisite for our happiness. In times when lasting relationships are almost a rarity, many people have found that love comes and goes, but friends stay. By the way: Hundreds of "friends" on Facebook and the like are useless, only real contacts are decisive for our happiness.

7. variety

Always the same thing, even the weekends are similar, and you always fly to the same destination on vacation? That bores you and makes you unhappy over time. Make a conscious effort to change things up: Try out a new recipe, invite your friends to a new restaurant or take a trip to a city you don't know!

8. gratitude

Be grateful for what you have - job, relationship, friends, family. Studies show that gratitude prevents depressive symptoms and increases both well-being and satisfaction with your own life.

9. meditate

Meditation improves concentration and relaxes. When we meditate, we are completely with ourselves, tension, anxiety and stress are reduced - all factors that are considered "happiness-promoting".

10. smile

Our brain doesn't care whether we smile for no reason or out of joy. The muscles involved signal to the mind that we are smiling, which causes it to release happiness hormones. The hormones in turn have an anti-inflammatory, pain-relieving and anxiety-relieving effect.