Dead Easy 5-Minute Rules to Building Happiness Everyday

If you suck at building habits, like I do

I am damn tired of productivity habits on the internet, and admit it so are you.

That is why I am here to walk you through a more organic way of building happiness each day that worked for me. Today, I am not only more happy, and less anxious but I also feel more confident in navigating the ups and downs of life.

But it all started with dead easy 5-minute rules.

We may all differ in how we live our lives, but one thing binds us all — We all want to be happy. Most people don’t know how to be more happy. Some don’t know what happiness even feels like. Others are just too busy to think about happiness.

The problem is more and more content on the internet is focused on turning us into an efficient machine — stronger, faster, and better. Social media is filled with 100 productivity hacks, and very less true wisdom on building more satisfaction & fulfillment into our lives.

The following 5-minute rules worked like magic for me, because I sucked at habit building. Now, I am way happier & peaceful than I used to be.

Keep the following in mind:

Don’t chase absolute happiness. That doesn’t exist. There is no benchmark to being happy. Strive to become happier each day.
Slow & Steady wins the race. Start small and expand later.

Now, let's dive in.

Rule #1: 5 minutes of Silence

As soon as you wake up, sit somewhere in silence for 5 mins

Set a timer for 5 mins
Take a few deep breaths, and
Sit in silence

Let thoughts come and go as they please. Just sit and let it be.

The canvas of your mind is blank at this point. Paint it with silent focus.

Rule #2: 5 minutes of Movement

Move your body and get the blood circulation going. Your body is connected to your mind and it's that ‘unit’ that you need to activate.

Move your hands; Move your legs
Roll up and down your shoulders and & squeeze your shoulder blades
Roll and Move your hips; Squat down

If you are unable to squat, just bend your hips and go as low as you can.

Do what you are capable of. But do it.

Rule #3: 5 minutes of Gratefulness

At the end of each day, I take out my digital note-taking software and quickly jot down what made me feel good today and why. I also sometimes just scribble on a paper.

This forced my nagging unhappy mind to find things that worked for me, that I should be happy about. This is called ‘re-wiring’ of the brain.

On days when seemingly nothing worked, — work felt terrible, fight ensued, felt rejected etc, I made note of the warm cup of tea I had that made me feel refreshed.

Interestingly, on the worst days, there is at least 2–3 good things to write about.

Gratitude is so hard-wired in me now, that I keep practicing gratitude throughout the day in my mind. I appreciate all the little wins in a day. Guess what that makes me do? Smile. A Small Happy Smile.