As I've mentioned before on this blog, a great technique for being happy is to feel grateful, and to find ways to express that gratitude. In studies where subjects wrote down things they were grateful for on a regular basis, they showed a measurable rise in well-being. Alternatively, writing a letter to someone who has meant a lot to you is also effective. In studies, this technique worked even if when the writer had no intention of sending the letter. I'm not sure why this technique works so well; perhaps a persistent feeling of gratitude is sufficiently incompatible with negative emotions that it prevents them from imposing themselves on an appreciative mind. But regardless of the reason, it does seem to work for a lot of people, and that makes it worth a shot. Even if it sounds silly, I encourage you to give it a try. There are other techniques for happiness that rely on having an unreasonably positive view of the world, and I have mixed feelings about the use of those, but feeling and expressing appreciation seems to me to be genuine, not contrived. In numerous ways we are designed to not feel as grateful as we should, and what this technique does is to raise the perceived appreciation level to where it should've been all along.