5 Ways To Raise Your Happiness Quotient

1. Get Sufficient Quality Sleep
Thanks to Maslows need hierarchy, we all know that sleep is a fundamental need. But it isn't so much the number of hours, as much as the quality of sleep.

An analysis of the lifestyles of some 4,000 adults found that the happiest of the lot get an average of 6 hours 15 min of uninterrupted, quality sleep each night.

Lack of sleep can negatively affect our mood the following day, it, getting better quality helps us become happier.

Not only does it make us happier but it also increases our productivity at work

2. Practice Mindfulness
In order to be happy we need to practice mindfulness.
Mindful living is about living consciously with awareness. It emerges through paying attention on purpose, being in the present moment, and observing the unfolding of experiences in a nonjudgmental fashion, from moment to moment.

If you create a ritual where you sit for 10-20 minutes a day, often enough, you will begin to disassociate from your thoughts realise that we are not our thoughts or emotions, and then become less affected by them.

Consequently, we are happier with what is happening around us. It is the wandering of the mind which saddles us down.

3. Smile and laugh often
There are biological processes that that trick our brain into thinking we're happy. Laughter yoga is a new rage. People from all walks of life are indulging in it.

It is again a mindful move, a proactive move. The intervention may be effective momentarily only, but in time if it becomes a habit, feeling a wee bit better in doses can help achieve the larger goal.
Fake it till you make it.

4. Money can buy happiness.
While retail spending can give us a temporary high, focusing on gaining experiences which create memorable makes us happier in the long haul. Not only are the memories of the experiences of great value, but the anticipation of the time leading up to their fruition also ups our happiness quotient.

These experiences help strengthen our social relationships with the people we spend time with, and as time goes by the experience becomes more and memorable. When we look at experiences retrospectively we tend to tint them with rose tinted glasses. La vie en rose.

So go ahead and "buy some experience".

5. Spend Time With Happy People.
Motivational speaker Jim Rohn famously said that we are the average of the five people we spend the most time with.

We are greatly influenced by our social networks. Those closest to us affect our thinking self-esteem and decisions. Everyone is their own person but research indicates that we are more affected by our environment than we think.

Happiness is contagious, so make sure you are surrounded by shiny happy people.

Ensure that you divide your time judiciously in these activities and you are sure to up your "Happiness Quotient!"