Spend as much time as possible with people that add to your life and put a smile on your face. You have to be happy within yourself, of course, but surrounding yourself with great people is the key to happiness.

My Dad once told me to stop striving for happiness and strive for contentment instead. Happiness, sadness and everything else in between comes and goes.

Enjoy the little things in life, those small wins, that hug, that simple gesture from those kind people around you, be open to receive and offer help. Learn to forgive and be kind to yourself, you matter in this world and the world needs you in it. Do one kind thing for other people per week.

Challenging yourself to do something new. Be it painting, going to the cinema by yourself, writing a poem to a loved one, or aerial hoop lessons. It brings about joy and allows you to be in a new space.

Try and set aside a small amount of time for something you enjoy every day that makes you put your phone away.

Happiness comes from your own actions, and sexy is a state of mind.

I think everyone’s life experience is different and different things make people happy. With a very busy job which involves working long days, most weekends and most evenings, there is always more to do. The most important thing for me is to carve out some personal time to see friends, to get some exercise, to go to the cinema or just watch an episode of a box set. I think having the protected time gives you the headspace to keep going the rest of the time.

Be brave enough to embrace your own identity. We live in a society which constantly pushes us to conform and promotes an idea of 'normal’, whether that be how we dress, communicate, socialise or regulate our day. This happens in lots of small ways through advertising, pop culture and social media but it is also instituted more formally too, including through many aspects of our education system and in many workplaces. Your ‘normal’ is the only concept based in any fact or reality.

Do what you love, and surround yourself with people you love and who love you.

My top tip for happiness is a daily sunrise swim in the sea with the ones you love.

My formula for happiness is from an expert named Mo Gawdat… ‘Happiness is equal to or greater than the way you see the events of your life minus your expectations’. In other words, expect nothing from life or people and anything from there is a bonus. You must be content with yourself and your world first and foremost.

If I was to pick one thing… it comes in one word, love. Giving it and receiving it, brings the greatest happiness of all.

Ditch perfectionism. I was thwarted by perfectionism in my twenties and thirties but as I got into my late thirties I realised it was holding me back from doing the things I wanted to do. So, I made a new year's resolution to aim for my best rather than aiming for perfect. Perfectionism is an enemy in all areas of our life from how we view our bodies to how we approach our work. Letting go of perfectionism is liberating and empowering.

I think the secret to being happy is to, as much as possible, try not to compare yourself to other people. It’s a really quick way to feel terrible about yourself.

Be grateful and thankful for the positive things in your life and make peace with yourself for things you can’t have. No one gets everything, allow yourself bad days and ensure you follow them with better days.

Build up a store of happy memories and thoughts. I write mine into my happiness journal. When I'm finding things difficult, I pull out the journal and remind myself of things that have made me feel good and it really helps lift my mood. You can do similar with a jar and little slips of paper; a piggy bank of happiness.

You’ll be dead soon, have a bitta craic before then.

Happiness to me means having the freedom to be your true self, your authentic self, so my top tip for happiness would be to embrace your true self.

Live everyday! Make the most of every good thing that happens, enjoy the small things as well as the big. And take the time to realize, “I’m happy.”

Ring-fence a 15-Minute play-break for yourself each day. Always make time for laughter in your life. And, consciously and positively reframe your narrative – when you hear yourself say I have to go to work, do the laundry, take out the bins, reframe the thought to ‘I get to go to work’, ‘I get to do the laundry’. It doesn’t change what you are doing but it will gradually shift how you feel about doing it.

Happiness was something I seldom felt growing up. With my childhood, I always struggled to find something that made me truly happy. The one thing I constantly come back to when I think of the word happiness is music. Everyone speaks of music as the universal language. Not only do I believe this to be one hundred percent accurate, I also believe it to be true because of this, music can evoke emotions that we sometimes struggle to express. For me, music has not only been my happiness, but also my safe place. It has surrounded me with a love that I never knew I could feel, but it also showed me a form of expression that I struggled to show others. It helped me find my path and showed me that no matter my past I would always have a way to be happy even in my lowest points. I turned to music in my time of darkness, writing music and songs, listening to words of songs that best represented me and in that it provided a light at the end of the tunnel.

Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never grows old.

Every time I’m on my way to catch a flight, my father makes me a packed lunch of a roast chicken sandwich and hands me €20. As I sit and wait on the uncomfortable departure lounge seats the thought “no matter how old you get you’ll always be someones child” always passes my mind. My number one tip for happiness is to remember no matter how far you go you’ll always be loved.

Don't be worried about what people think or say about you, do good be true to yourself. And, get a dog. Never underestimate the happiness a cuddle from a dog brings.

My number one tip is to accept the apology you’re not going to get and move on. Jimmy Carr said it in relation to family, but I think it applies to lots of things. There is no justice, things aren’t fair and you can either get stuck in being bothered about that or just move on. I think it’s important to keep moving, always moving forward, never looking back too much. And if you can grab a bit of flow now and then, that helps. Whatever your chosen method, finding a state of flow is the holy grail.

Cook something for family and friends. It’s a super way of showing love - it could be something simple like a macaroni and cheese - but the cook gets almost as much satisfaction as the people eating the food.

Eat a bun with no one around, get a parking space in the centre of town, laugh uncontrollably at your own expense, realise nothing makes sense.

Make time for your loved ones. Spend time with those who inspire you, make you happy, support and love you. And make time for yourself too. Women in Ireland have to stop saying “Don’t mind me, sure I’ll be grand”, while they look after the needs of everyone else. We don’t and cannot peak at ‘grand’, we peak at ‘fan-feckin-tastic!’ We have to stop feeling bad about looking after ourselves. We need to be empowered, to be empowered we need to value and love ourselves.

Acceptance. It sounds simple, but it can be very difficult. Acceptance of where we are and who we are and how we feel, and just accepting that all those things are okay. Then take it from there.

My number one tip is placing an emphasis on keeping in touch with those who understand you and make you feel most comfortable.

Happiness is accepting what is rather than obsessing over what if. Don't compare your journey with the journey of others: there's more than enough to go round, so where you can, lift everyone up, and happiness will follow.

Happiness is subjective. Happiness is elusive. The more you chase it, the further away it is. So, find happiness in the moment. Happiness is having a cup of tea – normally it’s the 3rd cup of tea that hits the spot. Happiness is when you find a valid receipt for a faulty product – Phew. Happiness is finding money in your pocket you didn’t know you had.

Relationships. Relationships are sustainable happiness. If you look at the Buddhist philosophy of mindfulness, there's a difference between happiness and desire. The things that you think might make you happy are fleeting. They last for a while and then disappear. Relationships are the things that sustain.

Happiness for me comes from accepting that you can control nothing in life but your attention. Most of the time, our attention is going everywhere all the time. So you have to take responsibility for training your attention by having a daily discipline or practice that centres around focusing your attention on a single task or moment - like meditation, playing music, painting, reading or yoga.

Be yourself, trust your gut and love, love, love. When in need of a shortcut turn on Tina Turner's Proud Mary and have a boogie.

Do what excites you and fulfills you now, when you have the chance.

I recently was on holidays in Spain. I had a nice car, golf booked, a lovely spa, but I just felt something was missing. I wasn't happy, I could just feel it inside. I wasn't sure what it was, then my brother arrived on the second day and that feeling went away. What I learnt was, happiness comes from who you spend your time with not where you spend it.

Be authentic and true to yourself, and stay as aligned as possible to your core values.

The more you pursue happiness, the less happy you become. Focus on living a good life, and happiness will follow.

My number one tip for happiness is prioritising what you can do for others and making sure those around you feel valued. As a person I’m obviously very competitive both in the Showjumping arena and in my business, but I get genuine pleasure from seeing and making others happy

For me, happiness is family. Some years back, we began fostering an amazing young man. Now, he is out doing his own thing, has gotten his own place and we don’t see him half as much as we used to. But it fills me with happiness to see the person he has become and I know I can always count on him being around for holidays and special occasions. We have a pretty blended family and for me, being around those people is the epitome of happiness.

My number one tip for happiness is be true to yourself and your values, live your life for you not for others. Try surround yourself with good people who want to see you succeed , cheering you on not pulling you down.

Spend time in the company of relaxed, friendly animals, whether that means dogs, cats, birds, fish or any living creature at all. Pets are experts in mindfulness, and they do a great job of bringing us into the current moment, forgetting about our troubles and reminding us of the simple pleasure of good company.

Happiness for me, is when I feel at my purest. At this stage in my life, that means a state of being where I am not playing an accepted role. I recently went glamping with a group of women, and there was a sense of absolute freedom from having to be anything to anybody. I think that’s something that you really only understand at this stage of life and to me it’s the purity of that experience. That’s happiness.

Learning to be grateful is the pathway to happiness.

Don't stress the little things, take a moment to take a deep breath and get some perspective before you react. There's always a bright side or silver lining to be found in any bad situation.

Surround yourself with people that you can be absolutely yourself around, your true authentic self. People who lift you up. They will help you to make the right decisions for you along the way.

It sounds a bit wanky but honestly mine is just to appreciate where you are at this current moment in time. I used to spend way too much energy living in the future saying “when I have this job I'll be so happy or when I live here I'll be happy.” Then when I finally booked that job or moved into that house, it was actually really anticlimactic. Happiness really is a state of mind, not a destination. They don't go slapping that saying on everything from tea cups to wall hangings for no reason.

This one is very specific to my own journey, but trying to remember you don’t need to hit life milestones by a certain age like it’s a check list to get through. In fact you don’t need to do any of those things to be happy!

My number one tip for happiness? A little bit of what you fancy.