Wondering What Happiness Looks Like?
Honestly… this might be it.
Most people don’t struggle because they’re lazy or unmotivated.
They struggle because they’re trying to fix everything at once.
Mindset, health, relationships, career, sleep, purpose, happiness, all before breakfast.
It’s exhausting. I know, because I’ve done it.
You probably have too.
Here’s the strange thing though…
Real change rarely comes from spreading yourself thinner. It comes from choosing one idea, one practice, one lever, and pulling it again and again until something shifts. Quietly. Then suddenly.
That one idea is this…
Happiness isn’t just a mood. It’s a physical state you can switch on, and your body knows exactly how.
Now pause for a second.
Have you ever…
“Felt blue,” like the colour drained right out of you?
Got “cold feet” and backed out at the last second?
Felt your stomach twist itself into a hot, anxious knot?
These phrases aren’t poetic accidents. They’re body truth.
And science, real science, not motivational fluff, now shows us exactly what’s happening underneath.
The Body Doesn’t Lie (Even When the Mind Does)
Researchers including Lauri Nummenmaa, Enrico Glerean, Riitta Hari, and Jari K. Hietanen asked hundreds of people to map where they felt emotions in their bodies.
Not metaphorically.
Literally.
Depression showed up cold, blue, quiet, almost switched off.
Fear pooled in the feet, yes, cold feet.
Anxiety burned in the stomach, red-hot and tight, like it wanted out.
But happiness?
Happiness lit people up.
Yellow. Orange. Warmth spreading through the chest, arms, face, even legs. Everywhere.
When I first saw those images, I felt something deep in my chest. Not intellectually, physically. Like… oh. That’s it.
That’s what happiness looks like.
The Health “Bank Account” Nobody Talks About
A friend said something to me recently that stuck, and won’t leave…
“You’re either depositing into your health account, or withdrawing from it.”
Negative emotions aren’t evil.
They’re human.
But when anxiety, fear, shame, or low mood become daily background noise, the withdrawals compound. Relentlessly.
Eventually the account goes overdrawn.
Burnout. Illness. Shortened life. Harsh, but true.
The relief? You can start depositing again. Today. Even now.
And it doesn’t require fixing your whole life.
One Strategy. Five Ripple Effects.
1. Happiness Calms the Nervous System, Fast
I once got stuck in a lift. Forty minutes. No air movement. No control. The worst setting imaginable.
And I wasn’t alone. I was with a client who lived with claustrophobia and panic attacks. She had chosen that day to challenge herself and take the lift. Life has a sense of humour.
Instead of spiralling, I reminded her, gently, of the emotional body maps we’d looked at before. The colours. The contrast. What fear does. What happiness does.
She breathed. Anchored a memory. Shifted focus.
Something softened. Her shoulders dropped. Breath slowed. Panic faded.
We walked out calm. The fire service stared. Her mental health nurse blinked twice.
Happiness didn’t deny reality.
It regulated it.
2. Happiness Gives Energy Instead of Taking It
You know that feeling when everything feels heavy, like walking through syrup?
Then other days, rare, golden days, things just flow. Work feels lighter. Conversations easier. You move without friction.
Same life. Different body state.
Happiness doesn’t add pressure. It removes resistance, like oil in a rusted engine.
3. Happiness Can Literally Keep You Alive
This still amazes me.
A long-term study led by Andrew Steptoe found that older adults who felt happy, content, or excited on a typical day were up to 35% less likely to die over five years.
Even with chronic illness. Even with money stress.
Happiness wasn’t a reward for an easy life.
It was armour.
4. Happiness Is Multi-Sensory (and Trainable)
You are not just a thinking head on legs.
You’re sensory. Smell. Sound. Colour. Touch. Memory. All of it.
Try this now, if you’re willing:
Think of a moment you felt genuinely happy. Not dramatic. Just… right.
Where were you? What colour dominated? What could you smell?
What were you wearing? Eating? Drinking?
Now exaggerate it. Make it brighter. Louder. Warmer.
Press thumb and finger together. Breathe in. Out.
Imagine warm yellow-orange light inside you, sunlike, ridiculous, glowing.
That’s not imagination. That’s neurology learning a shortcut.
5. Tiny Actions, Outsized Returns
You don’t need a retreat in Bali.
Six minutes in nature can shift your nervous system for days, explored beautifully in The Nature Fix by Florence Williams.
Laughter releases multiple happiness chemicals. Even fake laughter works. Weird. True.
Looking at nature photos, listening to birdsong, cloud-watching from a window, it still counts.
Small things. Huge echoes.
The Part People Skip (Don’t)
Here’s the uncomfortable truth:
Understanding this won’t change your life.
Practising it will.
Happiness isn’t a one-off hit. It’s repetition. Daily deposits. Returning to the body map. Choosing regulation over reaction, again and again.
Some days you’ll glow. Some days you won’t. Both are human.
One Last Thought
A quote I return to often, from Mahatma Gandhi:
“Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.”
That harmony isn’t found.
It’s practised.
And yes, anyone can do it. Including you.
Especially you.
So… what brings you happiness?
Did any of the three practices shift something, however slightly?
And who around you might need a little more glow today?
