Happiness is a goal rather than a destination, and it’s a journey that can be accomplished and reached even just a little bit every day. While it’s impossible to be ear-splitting grin happy all the time, you can absolutely make changes to your life, so you are happy with where you are and content with what you have. From there, your life will be sparks of joy and sadness, but where you are is somewhere you want to be no matter what.

That’s what a happy life is, and while the road there can be complicated, focusing on your health is a great way to get started. How you live and how healthy you are can play such a massive role in your overall quality of life, and it’s also one of the more straightforward areas to focus on. By using this guide, you can boost your health and lead a happier life because of it:

Improve Your Diet

Eat well and feel well. If you find that you don’t feel well after eating a big meal, for example, this is a clear sign that the food in question wasn’t good enough for you. A good way to eat better is to simply make meals from scratch and try to find ways to increase the nutritional content of everything you eat. Eating healthier foods, however, is just the start. Getting the most out of your diet means understanding your health, your gut, and what you need to do to bridge that gap between what you eat and what your body needs.

Boost Your Gut Health

Your gut health and diet are linked, but not entirely the same. Eating healthy is always a good goal, but it’s important to keep in mind that not all foods (even the healthy ones) are a good fit for you. You also don’t have to solely rely on food to give your body what it needs. Many supplements, including enzymes and probiotics, can help improve gut health.

Take probiotics, for example. This addition can help you manage gas, digestive pain, and bloating. Not every type of product is going to be a good fit for you, but you can take a probiotic quiz to find out what your body needs to feel better.

Cutting out certain foods can also help. For example, many people struggle with lactose, so cutting out lactose can immediately improve their gut health. Improving your gut’s health can then lead to many benefits. You may be able to sleep better because your gut isn’t doing gymnastics trying to digest your food. You may even notice your skin clears up.

Understand Your Stressors

You won’t be able to walk through life while avoiding every stressor that you have. It’s impossible, but being blindsided by something that stresses you out, especially if it triggers you, is far from ideal. It’s best to know what causes you stress or anxiety and the reason why. You may not like large crowds, but that alone isn’t enough of a reason why. What is it specifically about large crowds that causes you stress? Is it the feel of people pressing against you, the sensory overload, the heat? Understanding exactly what it is about a large crowd that causes you anxiety can help you prepare if you need to go into such a crowded space, and it can also help you create strategies to manage your anxiety if you get stuck in a crowd.

For many, stressors will be work, or even from the people they know. If you feel stressed or put on edge when you’re around a certain person, it’s important to understand the reason why. Loved ones can display toxic behavior, and while you don’t need to cut them off immediately, you need to set boundaries and make sure that those around you are aware of what they are doing and that you need them to stop. If they do not treat you better, consider cutting contact.

Understanding stressors is how you can navigate around life more comfortably and, as a result, enjoy each day feeling safer and even happier.

Make Time for You

There are a lot of responsibilities that can take up your day. You have work, friends, family, and physical needs – these can easily take up your entire day before you know it. While you won’t die in this situation, you can start moving through life in something of a fog.

You need instances of joy. You need to make time for the things that make you happy and help you feel at peace. Sometimes, you need to try out new things to find the right combination of hobbies and interests that you can intersperse throughout your day. If you love creating, for example, try to pick up a craft that’s easy to do while relaxing, like knitting or crocheting. If you love the outdoors, try to go on a morning walk or run through the parks near you in the morning.

If you like to do something that requires a bigger budget, plan for it. Even if you can only do it once per year, planning and preparing can be fun and stress-relieving. The build-up to a trip to another country, for example, can help you feel better and excited even in your every day.

Don’t forget to look for more budget-friendly alternatives to those types of activities, however. If you love to travel, plan day or weekend trips to a nearby city. If you are saving up to go to a big musical production, keep an eye out for small, local productions that cost far less per ticket. There are so many ways you can add joy to your life, even on a tight budget, but you will need to prioritize even a little bit of time for yourself. When it comes to your happiness, however, it’s important to enrich all areas of your life, most importantly the areas you’re passionate about or excited about.