Last Updated on August 17, 2025 by Michelle
Many women fear aging but 40s is the best decade with the right happy life habits, according to many women in the 70s and beyond.
This post will cover simple, science-backed habits that boost happiness in health, finance and most importantly mindset
Health Habits For A Happy Life After 40
Prepare health routines. Introduce just 1 habit at a time, for example stretching for 15 seconds first thing on your bed after you wake up or daily flossing or drinking warm water at the start of day. These are easy enough but with long term health benefits if you sustain the habit. Key is to start simple and once that becomes a habit, layer on more one at a time. At some point as you gather momentum, you can start layering pilates workout, weights training or brisk walking to your routines.
The reason why I put health first is because this brings out happiness hormones. It’s a byproduct of your body becoming healthier. Scientific studies include Boecker et al., 2008, Greenwood et al., 2011 and Rimmele et al., 2007 which point to endorphins, dopamine, serotonin boosts while cortisol reduction which ultimately gives us motivation, pleasure, mood uplifts while reducing stress and anxiety. All this means is that we become happier!
Financial Habits That Bring Peace Of Mind
Remember, financial independence is not about earning more. It’s about spending less such that you are investing more for the future in order to get to a point where you will not need to work to get the income needed to sustain your lifestyle. If you want to know a step by step guide, you can refer to my prior blog on financial independence.
This will bring you a peace of mind, knowing you have enough sustained cashflow for your lifestyle.
This peace of mind will help you shift focus on other important things like graceful aging which in turn will help you get into happy life habits in other aspects such as intellectual growth.
Intellectual & Emotional Growth Habit
Humans are built to be happy when they learn something new. That’s how our brains are wired. Reading and listening to podcasts that make you learn something new about anything, will make you happy. The Aha moment you get when you learn something new, as shown in Tik et al., 2018, Journal of Neuroscience showed fMRI scans of participants where there was increased acitivity in the striatum and hippocampus, the same brain regions tied to reward and positive emotions.
Use your commute time as a time to listen to podcasts if you drive or to read a book (of any genre) if you don’t drive.
Starting your day with a feeling of learning something new, will increase your probabily of having a happy day ahead.
Lifestyle & Joy Habits To Thrive After 40
Make sure you understand what makes you happy, so you can ensure you spend as much time on that as possible.
This is also known as hobby. Something you do just because you are happy to do the thing.
This could be spending time with people you enjoy the company of. Everyone has a different thing they love doing, but many of us do not spend enough time asking ourselves the question.
How To Build Happy Life Habits That Stick
Just like sustaining any good habit. Start small, Track it, Reward yourself and Repeat. I had shared in a blog why getting 1% better everyday matters.
Just start and you will see the benefit at about 6th day, based on my own experience.
In summary, happiness after 40 is simple and yet holistic. It is about health, wealth, mindset and joy. Make sure you prioritize these 4 aspects and you ware wll on your way to create your most fulfilling decade yet!
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