How to Microdose Your Happiness

Chat up the barista. Take a new route to work tomorrow. Name household plants after historical figures. These teeny-tiny acts will bring you massive joy...and greater well-being.

- By Beth Howard Illustrations by Jimmy Simpson

When Dagmar Spichale makes her white fourposter bed each morning, she carefully styles it with colorful pillows, as if for a photo shoot. "I work from home and pass by the bedroom often during the day," says the 47-year-old designer in Oakland Hills, California. "It always lifts my spirits to see this beautiful room."

Melissa Herklotz, 40, keeps a bottle of Chanel perfume in her car to use on days that she needs a lift. "A couple of spritzes and suddenly I feel like I can handle anything with grace," says the Houston-based publicist.

Media relations specialist Patty Zamora, 55, makes a point of using her half-hour work commute in Cleveland to call members of her “female tribe,” the friends who help ground her. “They bring joy and comfort in my life daily,” she says.

All three of these women actively partake in a less-talked-about truth, whether they realize it or not: that one of the most effective ways to live a healthier, happier life is to inject microdoses of joy into your routine. Simple? Shockingly. Silly? Sometimes. Totally worth it? Absolutely.

The Power of Pleasure

Joy is having a moment right now. From the newly dubbed “joyspan” (the extent to which someone adjusts to the challenges of aging—and thrives despite them) to the concept of exercise as “play” circulating on social media, everyone is dialed in to this feeling’s big payoffs.