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As you have probably noticed if you are one of my regular (or irregular) readers, “It’s More Fun in Your 30s” is a blog that can sometimes veer on the serious side of things with posts like “How to Use Your Blog as Your CV“, but I do LOVE to LAUGH. With so much serious stuff going on in the world today, it can be hard to find reasons to smile, so I am giving you 21 of them for FREE!

 Put on Roses by Outkast and sing the first CAROLIIINEEEEEEEEE in perfect timing. 

This sounds like such a weird one doesn’t it? I promise you if you are having a hard day and you put this on and you do crack out the “CARRROLLLLINNNEEE” in perfect timing, you’ll feel wonderful. This is also something you can enjoy with a friend because you can get them to do the second, higher “CAROLLLINNEE” at perfect timing.

Watch the clip of Gemma Collins giving Mick Norcross the apple pie she baked him. 

I don’t watch TOWIE anymore. Unfortunately, I just find it too shouty. When I used to watch it, it did have some funny moments. When Gemma Collins and Joey Essex reigned the Range Rover’s, TOWIE had some super-hilarious moments. The funniest moment of TOWIE, in my humble opinion, is when Gemma Collins baked Mick Norcross a pie and left it on his doorstep. I won’t spoil it, I will just leave it here for you to enjoy.

Cuddle your pet

Whenever I need an INSTANT smile, my first port of call is cuddling Alfred and Albert. If you follow me on Instagram you will know that they are my cats but also, my babies.

Watch The Lizzie McGuire Movie

An absolute classic, and one of my favourite films. I simply do not care that I happen to be a 33-year-old woman, The Lizzie McGuire Movie will ALWAYS cheer me up. You can watch it on Disney+, with the bonus that Sister Act is also on there.

Rewatch an old comfort series

I read somewhere once that people with anxiety tend to rewatch things they have already seen because they know what happens, and honestly if this isn’t me! There are a few series that I like to rewatch, but nothing is as warm and cosy as rewatching Gilmore Girls in the autumn months, despite how annoying I find Rory. But my ULTIMATE comfort series is Dawson’s Creek. I appreciate some of you younger guys might not have heard of it, and to be honest, I can’t say why it makes me smile because the actual characters spend a lot of the time unhappy but I don’t know, I guess it just reminds me of being young!

Watch the “David’s dead” Big Brother clip

I always think of this clip/situation as something that it’s probably really bad to laugh at, yet I cannot help how much I laugh at it. In fairness, it probably wasn’t nice for poor Tiffany, but the reactions of the other housemates just make it absolute gold. Especially Gemma Collins face! It was CHAOS.

Listen to “Life” by Des’ree

I have a lot of respect for people that write songs. I mean I write all of the random stuff that comes into my head on this lifestyle blog, but songwriters have to make stuff they write rhyme as well. So I get it, it’s hard work writing songs, but that doesn’t stop me from finding the lyrics to certain songs hilarious. One of those songs just happens to be “Life” by Des’ree. It came out when I was younger and I remembered the song, but when I revisited it recently I couldn’t believe the lyrics. Certain to raise a smile.

Watch Hotel for Dogs

I will happily admit to anyone, this is my favourite film. It’s got everything, dogs, shenanigans, dogs. I won’t give away too much in case you have never seen it before, but it’s quite a happy film. And while it may be sad to watch it as a grown adult, you just watch it yourself and try telling me you didn’t smile.

Compliment someone

One of the most sure-fire ways I find to make myself smile is to compliment or do a nice thing for someone else. It doesn’t have to be anything major, it can be something small like complimenting their outfit or getting someone in the office a tea when you go to the kitchen. Being nice to people always makes me feel so good, which is funny because I’m usually quite a bitch.

Put makeup on

Some days it can be hard to have the motivation for anything and trust me, I get that. I always find that going through the motions of getting ready to help me to be a bit more prepared for my day. Putting makeup on is something that can take me one minute or one hour, but I always do find I can raise a bit of a smile once I have eyelashes on, proving you can take the girl out of Essex, but you can’t take the Essex out of the girl.

Dance to some bangers

Dancing is a form of exercise that releases endorphins, which in turn should make you smile. I LOVE the music in general so putting on a great song always puts me in a good mood anyway, but if I dance around a bit as well, especially if I put a house track on that I love, it gives me double the reason to be happy.

Moisturize

Feeling fresh and clean is something that always gets a smile from me. I love using cocoa butter and to be honest, no matter the time of day if I am at home and I can I will give myself a quick moisturize to freshen up. I use the OG Palmer’s Cocoa Butter (and they do a fantastic lip balm as well).

Look at the Chonky Animals Instagram

As you will probably notice from my previous posts such as “The Ultimate Guide to Getting a Kitten“, I LOVE animals and I would die for both of my boys, Albert and Alfred (my two cats). You could say I am an animal lover in general. I tend to follow all of the cute animal pages etc on social media, and one of my favourites on Instagram is Chonky Animals.

Learn a funny fact

It’s quite an obvious thing to say to someone, “Hey, look up some jokes” or to get a good joke book to crack out every time you need a smile. But there are some quite funny facts out there that will not only give you a laugh but also might be helpful in a pub quiz. For example, look up what Roald Dahl’s last words were…

Sing

Can I sing? No. Do I sing? Yes. It makes me happy. I love to sing when I am home alone working and I might need a little smile. I have a good playlist of songs I use to calm down on the tube, but there are some good ballads on it too if you fancy singing Celly D.