7 Ways To Be Happier At Home

If you've been feeling a little dissatisfied with your home life, Gretchen Rubin, author of the best-seller The Happiness Project, wants to help you be happier at home. Her new book Happier at Home will be available on September 4th, and below, in anticipation, we're re-publishing a post she originally wrote on her blog, The Happiness Project.

In my new one-minute video book trailer, I list "Ten ways to be happier at home." Some of those suggestions are serious, and some are goofy (to my surprise, my suggestion regarding purple has turned out to be fairly controversial). Here's another list of ways to be happier at home -- or, at least, they've made me happier at home.

One of these items is important enough to be listed in both places. Can you guess which one?

1. Get enough sleep.

2. Embrace good smells. No cost, no calories, no energy, no time-a quick hit of pleasure.

3. Cultivate a shrine.

4. Accept yourself, and expect more from yourself.

5. Give warm greetings and farewells. I was surprised by how much this resolution changed the atmosphere of my home.

6. Abandon your self-control. Well, this one really works for for my fellow abstainers, not moderators.

7. Remember the Sixth Splendid Truth: The only person you can change is yourself.

What else would you add to the list?