My gratitude and a Happier update

When people ask me about some of my proudest achievements, I tell them that creating the Happier mobile app and community was absolutely one of them!

The idea for the app to help people capture and share moments of gratitude came from my personal struggle to feel happier. (Here’s my TED Talk where I share this story.)

I’d come to the US as a refugee when I was 13 years old and believed that achievements and success would bring me happiness and contentment. But after two decades, I kept failing to find even small moments of either and that’s when I stumbled onto research on the power of gratitude.

After experiencing how practicing gratitude was positively changing my life — including my relationships with the people I love and my ability to handle stress — I felt so passionate about creating a way for anyone to make gratitude a regular habit.

We launched the Happier app to the world in the spring of 2013 and since then, nearly a million people have shared more than 8 million moments of gratitude! (Here's what The New York Times wrote about us.) It’s been an overwhelming honor to see and hear how regularly practicing gratitude with the Happier app improved so many lives!

After 6 great years, we’ve said goodbye to the Happier app as we continue to create and share learning tools to help people and teams cultivate emotional health with Gratitude plus the skills of Acceptance, Intentional Kindness, the Bigger Why, and Self-care — the 5 Core Happier Skills. (Needless to say, this was one of the most difficult decisions I've ever had to make and we've ever made as a team.)

I have to tell you about the incredible team that created the Happier app! Their hard work, dedication, and desire to create something that improves people’s lives in a tangible, meaningful way continues to fuel me this day. Creating something from scratch is one of the most difficult endeavors you can undertake, which is why I’m especially proud of the joy and connection we shared, during good and challenging times. 

No part of this journey could be possible without the incredible and inspiring Happier community! So I want to take this moment to express my deepest gratitude to all of you for being part of my journey and our team’s journey. Our community was there for me through my highs and lows. I've never thought possible to create such close, warm, genuine human connections without meeting people in real life -- but that's exactly the gift that the Happier app community gave me and each other.

I am so deeply grateful for this amazing community! Thank you for the energy and dedication you’ve put into your practice of gratitude and other Happier Skills and for the support and encourageement you've give to each other. Thank you for being willing, open, and vulnerable. It’s truly an honor to be part of this extraordinary community and learn together, with you, every day.

Our community continues to grow and connect in many ways: the Happier Skills Facebook Group, the weekly Happier email, HAPPIER NOW book, fun learning tools on happier.com, and Happier @ Work talks and workshops. (I have to tell you that every time I step on stage to deliver a keynote or lead a workshop, I feel the presence of our community right there with me.)

Thank you for always being an integral part of who we are at Happier and of our mission:

To help millions of people thrive in work and life by improving their emotional health with science-backed skills and practices.