5. Prioritizing Positivity: A New Way to Think About Happiness Habits

Prioritizing Positivity: A New Way to Think About Happiness Habits

Welcome back to Redefining Happiness. I’m Karen Castillo, and today we’re exploring something that can quietly shift the way your days feel.

It’s called prioritizing positivity. This isn’t about ignoring hard things or forcing yourself to smile all day. It’s not a fake-it-till-you-make-it mindset. It’s about making intentional space for moments that bring you joy, meaning, or peace, so your days don’t just happen to you, you help shape them.

Why This Matters

Most of us go through our days on auto-pilot. We wake up, check our phones, go through our to-do lists, take care of our families, errands, and jobs, and hope something fun will happen along the way. But too often, it doesn’t. Or if it does, we barely register it before moving on to the next task.

It’s not that we’re doing anything wrong. It’s just that our days are built for efficiency, not happiness. And while efficiency matters, if we don’t intentionally prioritize what fills us up, we end up feeling drained, overwhelmed, and emotionally undernourished.

What the Research Shows

A study by researchers Lahnna Catalino and Barbara Fredrickson found that people who intentionally prioritize positivity, who make space in their day for activities that bring them positive emotion, report greater well-being and life satisfaction.

It’s not about chasing big highs or waiting for the weekend. It’s about creating little pockets of joy throughout your day that make life feel fuller now.

The key word here is intentional. It’s not about waiting for happiness to show up. It’s about designing your day so that it has space for happiness to happen.

What This Looks Like in Real Life

Here’s the difference. Let’s say you love being outside. But your schedule is packed, and you never make time for a walk. You tell yourself you’ll do it if you finish your to-do list. But the list never ends, and the walk never happens.

Now imagine starting your day by saying, “At 3:00 today, I’m going to step outside for 10 minutes. I’m going to leave my phone inside and just enjoy the fresh air.”

That small act, planning for a positive emotion, is prioritizing positivity.

It can be anything:

• Playing your favorite song while making lunch
• Lighting a candle before bed and journaling
• Making time for a quick chat with a friend
• Playing outside with your kids or pets
• Sitting in silence for five minutes and doing…nothing

None of these things take much time. But they tell your brain: this moment matters. And when we make time for happiness, we feel more happiness.

Redefining Happiness

Part of what makes this practice so powerful is that it helps us shift our entire perspective on what happiness really is.

Most of us have been sold a version of happiness that’s based on achievement, approval, and wealth, as if we can only be happy after we’ve earned it. We’re taught to believe that happiness lives at the top of some imaginary mountain: after the promotion, the perfect relationship, the dream house, the big win.

But real happiness, the kind that creates a fulfilling life, isn’t made of mountaintop moments. It’s built out of small, meaningful moments that happen throughout your day. Moments that you experience, not just check off.

Prioritizing positivity is a way to reclaim happiness from the unrealistic standards we’ve been given. It helps you stop measuring your happiness by how much you’ve achieved and start noticing how your life feels in the quiet, cozy, connective, beautiful spaces that already exist around you.

This is how we move from chasing an unreachable ideal to actually living a life that feels good. Not later, but now.

A Note on “Toxic Positivity”

To be clear, this isn’t about toxic positivity. It doesn’t mean you have to ignore the hard stuff. Prioritizing positivity isn’t about pretending everything’s okay, it’s about letting small moments of joy coexist with whatever else is true for you.

It’s not about denying your struggles or forcing yourself to feel good when you don’t. It’s about making room for good moments to exist alongside the hard ones. It’s about remembering that joy and struggle can happen at the same time.

You can have a stressful day at work and enjoy a good dinner with your family.
You can be dealing with a heavy personal situation and still laugh at something your kids say.

The more we practice noticing and creating these moments, the more resilient and emotionally nourished we become.

Your Happiness Challenge: Positivity Planning

Here’s how to do it:

Step 1: At the start of your day, choose one small thing you’ll do just because it makes you feel good.
Something you enjoy. Something that feels like you. It doesn’t have to be productive or useful, just pleasant.

Step 2: Schedule it.
Actually block time for it in your calendar, planner, or phone alarm. If it’s not scheduled, it’s too easy to forget.

Step 3: At the end of the day, reflect.
Ask yourself: Did this moment change how I felt today? Did it lift me up, even a little?

You’ll be amazed how such a small act can shift your whole mood, and even how you remember the day.

If you’d like to go deeper with this practice, I’ve created an expanded version of the challenge just for you.

Inside the FREE Resources Hub, you’ll find an expanded version of this challenge with:

• A printable 5-day tracker

• Bonus journal prompts

• A guide to help you design your own Personal Positivity Plan

The hub is your go-to library for all podcast worksheets, templates, and happiness tools. Sign up once, and you’ll always have access to everything new I create.

The hub is your go-to library for podcast exercises, guides, and bonus content. Once you sign up, you’ll always have access to new materials as I add them. 

Final Thoughts

Happiness doesn’t just show up. It needs space. And when you give it that space, when you prioritize positivity in your daily life, you start to realize that happiness isn’t something you have to chase. It’s something you can build, one small habit at a time.

If this perspective helped you see your day a little differently, share it with someone who could use a happiness boost.

And after trying this week’s challenge, I’d love to hear what your positivity moment was. Tag me on Instagram or send a message. I always love hearing from you.

Thanks for reading Redefining Happiness. See you next time.

-Karen

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