When I was younger, being happy was easy. Now, it’s definitely harder but also definitely not impossible. There are so many things that threaten our happiness; people, pressure and uncertainty are to name a few.*

*I have no idea whether I just used that semi-colon properly, or if there is even a hyphen between ‘semi’ and ‘colon’. Gosh, this just sounds dirty now.

Well, as I’ve just proved, formality is a struggle for me so I’m not going to pretend I’m the sort of person who doesn’t have to Google punctuation tips. Here is what I am good at, a list. A list of things that have made me happy recently.

1. Stroking my dog. I’m not a huge animal person but spending time with my dog brings me a weird sense of peace, the only downside being that she stinks 24/7 so I have to wash my hands three or four times after touching her. Ah, blissful human-dog love.

2. Making no effort to get dressed today at all. The furthest I went was to put my hair in a bun but even that felt a little bit excessive.

3. Finding a ready-meal in the fridge left for me by my mum. That sounds so boring but we are not a ready-meal family so this is a pretty huge gesture of unconditional love. In reality, she probably just couldn’t be bothered to cook anything but I like the unconditional love thing.

4. A spot on my face finally disappearing. I was starting to worry it was going to be one of those moles that just looks like a huge spot. Luckily, I will not be renaming myself Nanny McPhee anytime soon.*

*Not that that would be awful, because she was one of my childhood idols.

5. Making this weird ‘granola dust‘ stuff. Yes, it coated the roof of my mouth with a hard layer of cement but I felt all health food-y and vegan.

6. Buying some bright pink shoes. Whatever your favourite colour is, wear something that is unashamedly that colour. There will be some psychological reason as to why this is an instant mood boost, but all I know is that it is really fun.*

*I’m also going to unashamedly self promote myself right now. If you want to witness the true beauty of my pink trainers, check out my Instagram: @electriclil

7. Having loads of non-matching cushions in our lounge/sitting room/front room.

8. Rookie! I can’t believe I’ve never mentioned it before but since I was about 13, I’ve been obsessed with this online magazine.

9. Pinterest. I didn’t mean to mention so many external websites but scrolling through pictures of beautiful bedrooms and food is one of my favourite things to do when I’m stressed, or am lacking motivation to do anything.

10. These songs: This is literally a complete cliche but turn the volume up as high as possible, and dance to them.
Video Killed The Radio Star – The Buggles
Dancing In The Moonlight – Toploader
Electric Feel – MGMT
Stuck In The Middle With You – Stealers Wheels

In conclusion, even if you’re not the sort of person who uses semi-colons properly, cooks posh meals yourself without your mum’s help, or gets dressed everyday, you deserve to be happy and you deserve to be able to make yourself happy.