Bloggist Eric Barker explores which behaviors convince your brain to feel happy.

Neuroscience tells us that your thoughts and actions can influence your brain chemistry and can physically impact your mood, so why not hack that system to make yourself feel happier?

In his article, “Neuroscience discovers 5 things that will make you happy,” Barker identifes behaviors that can improve your mood:

• Listen to music from the happiest time in your life: Let’s hope you had good taste when you were happiest.
• Smile and wear those sunglasses: You don’t have to wear them indoors. That would be dumb.
• Think about your goals: It changes how you see the world and releases happy chemicals in your noggin.
• Get your sleep: Depressed people don’t sleep well. And people who don’t sleep well get depressed.
• Beat procrastination by reducing stress and doing a simple thing to get started: Listen to those happy-era tunes and then assemble all the materials you need to get cranking.

Barker also recommends going for a walk outside every morning, preferably with a friend.
This is because exercising, healthy exposure to sunlight, and social connection are at the top of the list of things that can make you feel happy.

Try any (or all!) of these actions to make a difference in how you feel.