By setting the bar lower, honestly. A walk in nature isn't very likely to make you happy, but it is quite likely to make you content. Happy is the top of the sc

By setting the bar lower, honestly. A walk in nature isn't very likely to make you happy, but it is quite likely to make you content. Happy is the top of the scale. Content is "good enough". I have a slight tendency towards gloominess and light depression and for me the most powerful tool has been to change how I answer "how are you doing", both when other people ask and when I ask myself. Instead of trying to figure out if I'm happy, I just look if anything bad has happened yet. Usually the answer is no, so I can answer "doing good so far" pretty much always. Doing this has improved my mood incredibly. That's the same sort of happy-vs-content thing I'm talking about. It's like going to sleep. If you try to will yourself to sleep it will invariably fail. Instead you have to make the conditions right and sleep will mostly happen by itself. Similarly you shouldn't try to be happy. You should try to not be unhappy -- by removing things that make you unhappy, or by learning to live with them without it affecting your mood too much -- and the rest will follow.