Marcel Deer
You know the type of people who walk out the front door every morning with big smiles on their faces?
How are they so happy?
Are they riding high on a lucky streak? Maybe it’s all that psilocybin microdosing, or maybe they just have a genetic predisposition for happiness.
All of these things are possible, but I’ll tell you what’s more likely – they’re probably making themselves happy by focusing on the things in their lives that give them pleasure and contentment.
These are people who’ve realized that happiness is a state of mind that they can create on their own no matter what their circumstances.
So they choose to do things to improve their lives, and they don’t even wait for the day to run its course. Instead, they get the ball rolling as soon as they get up, choosing activities that enrich their lives.
Want to know their secrets?
Sure you do – so here are 10 things truly happy people do every day before 9:00 a.m.
1) They get a great night’s sleep.
I don’t know about you, but except for that rave I went to when I was 22, where I danced all night fueled by energy drinks and pizza and went in to work the next day feeling great; I don’t normally feel happy when I haven’t slept!
If I don’t get an average of seven or eight hours of sleep every night, I turn into a real cranky-pants.
It’s pretty normal for people to come in well under this amount of sleep that’s recommended by sleep experts.
This makes a lot of sense because when you sleep, a whole bunch of really great stuff is going on.
Your body repairs damage, grows new cells, rests, and relaxes. Your brain cleans out toxins and uses sleepy time to consolidate memories.
Getting enough sleep also protects you from developing heart disease, diabetes, and a host of other conditions.
What’s not to like?
2) They wake up without an alarm.
You know how much happier you feel on the weekends when you wake up naturally instead of jumping out of bed to the braying call of your alarm?
It’s not just the lack of an annoying sound that makes you feel better.
How much sleep you get and when you wake up from it is also incredibly important.
We humans aren’t just like light switches where we’re either awake or asleep, and that’s it.
We go through ever-deeper stages of sleep that happen in cycles, and these cycles last 90 minutes on average.
If you’ve ever woken up from a short nap and felt recharged, you’ll know that waking from a shallow sleep is no problem. But if you wake up 40 minutes into a sleep, you normally feel awful, right?
You’re disoriented, blurry, and still groggy.
Well, if your alarm is waking you up during a stage of deep sleep, you’ll continue to feel this way every day. You’ll be inclined to hit snooze again and again instead of bouncing out of bed with a smile on your face.
Truly happy people get the sleep they need and find it easy to get up early without an alarm because they’ve taken proper care of themselves.
3) They eat well.
To eat or not to eat breakfast. That is the question.
I’m pretty sure this is what Shakespeare was really trying to say when he wrote his famous play about a ham omelet.
Am I remembering that wrong?
Breakfast may or may not be the most important meal of the day, and while I can’t go without it, I know many people who feel sick if they eat in the morning.
If you are going to eat breakfast, however, it’s important to eat something that’s good for you and not highly processed junk food.
Protein-rich foods are a great choice in the morning because they help replace the protein your body uses for repairing tissue overnight. There’s also evidence that eating protein in the morning can help you lose weight by making you feel full for longer.
Truly happy people take care of their bodies as well as their moods, and one way they do this is by eating well. They get the macronutrients and the essential vitamins and minerals they need to make themselves healthy.
4) They get caffeine in their bloodstream.
You don’t have to drink coffee or tea in the morning to have energy and be bright and cheerful.
But it doesn’t hurt!
Caffeine has been shown to sharper your focus, improve alertness, and even help improve working memory. Not only that, but it also works as a physical performance enhancer that helps you lift more and react faster.
Pretty great, right?
Just be aware of the specter of caffeine addiction.
If you’re an absolute beast before you get your morning coffee, you might have a look at your reliance on this powerful chemical.
5) They move.
Most people who are really happy in the morning are getting a heck of a lot done before 9:00 a.m.
They’re motivated to enjoy the early morning hours and do things that will have positive effects on their whole day.
That’s why so many happy people make time in the morning for exercise.
Look, you’ve just been lying down paralyzed by sleep for the whole night.
Doesn’t it seem like you should get up and shake the cobwebs out?
You’ll often see happy people at the local pool at the crack of dawn, down at the gym for an early sesh, or out jogging through the morning fog.
Rather than resenting these happy, healthy people or swerving your car at them, why not emulate them?
If you do what they do, you might just end up truly happy, too!
6) They plan.
You know what’s one of the biggest time-wasters in the world?
Forgetting things.
That’s the main reason why truly happy people plan out their days early in the morning. When they sit down and think about all the tasks they need to do and the things they need to get their hands on, they forget less.
They save copious amounts of time that others waste traveling around in circles.
They also get their time organized and prioritize the tasks they need to do so that they don’t waste even more time moving away from their goals.
7) They spend time with loved ones.
If you wake up in the morning and start playing with your phone before you even talk to the people in your house, you may have a phone addiction.
I know it’s tremendously tempting, but it’s also not something that will bring you the happiness you’re looking for.
So try leaving the phone where it is and actually spending quality time with your partner, your kids, or whoever you live with.
These human connections give our lives meaning and are a lot more valuable than checking your Insta updates!
8) They make time for gratitude.
Gratitude is consciously thinking about the good things in your life that you’re happy for.
These can be the people you care about, the material things you have, your home, and the good things you’ve experienced.
Focusing on the positives in life, even if you feel like you have very few, can make a huge difference to your state of mind.
A lot of people practice gratitude by journaling or even thinking aloud.
If you’re healthy, have a roof over your head, have a job, or have some great relationships, focus on what you have and not what’s missing in your life and see if you don’t turn into a truly happy person, too.
9) They perform self-care routines.
Self-care can refer to things that you do to take care of both your physical and mental health.
A lot of really happy people do both.
You might focus on skincare or personal hygiene and develop a routine that makes you look and feel great.
For your mental health, you might meditate or do yoga to relax and calm your mind.
Some people perform affirmations, telling themselves they’re valuable and focusing on positivity.
In all cases, taking a little time to care for yourself each morning can have a really big reward.
10) They focus on the here and now.
Really happy people manage to squeeze one more thing into their mornings.
They focus on reality and living in the moment.
This helps them avoid living too much in the past or worrying too much about what may happen in the future.
Instead, they ground themselves in the here and now and try to live each moment to its fullest.
These ten things truly happy people do every day before 9:00 a.m. have one thing in common.
They’re all small, easy actions that have big results.
If you want to inject your life with more happiness, try adding them to your morning routine one at a time.
In no time, you might find that you’re one of the truly happy people we’re talking about!
