the ultimate happy brain routine to improve your baseline happiness

We all have a baseline level of happiness. This refers to our typical feelings of happiness and wellbeing in absence of any specific influence or event. It’s how you feel day to day when nothing spectacularly good or bad happens.

Some people are lucky enough to have a naturally higher baseline than others. This is mostly down to genetic factors, but also personality traits like optimism or extroversion. For most people, however, maintaining a level of baseline happiness takes work.

The good news is that our baseline is not set in stone. While some people might be more predisposed to anxiety and depression, research shows that a large part of our baseline happiness comes down to our daily actions rather than external circumstances. So, if you want to improve your baseline happiness in the long term, it’s less about getting that promotion or getting together with your crush and more about the little things you can do each day to feel a bit better overall.

“A large part of our happiness comes down to our genes, but most people overestimate the role our life circumstances play in our happiness levels,” says Dr Maike Neuhaus, psychologist and founder of The Flourishing Doc. “Life circumstances play only a tiny role. A very large proportion of our happiness comes down to our daily actions. They start with the basics like having a healthy lifestyle, exercising and getting a good amount of sleep.”

Evidence to suggest that you can change your baseline happiness in the long-term is limited, but Dr Neuhaus suggests that it might be possible over time. “We know about the concept of brain plasticity,” she says. “We know that we can constantly grow and learn and change. Genes determine vulnerabilities, but not actualities. There’s a lot we can do individually to raise our baseline everyday and my guess is that if you practise that over the long-term that will eventually lead to a raise in that baseline overall.”

Below, we’ve curated some tips and products for a happy brain routine that boosts your day to day baseline happiness, from exercise gear and sleep aids to wellness journals and social activities. Get ready to get happy.

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