- Oprah Winfrey shared her key to happiness at 69.
- The lifestyle mogul calls this daily habit her “core.”
- Her advice on how to practice gratitude and live a happy life is outlined in her latest book, Build the Life You Want: The Art and Science of Getting Happier, out September 12.
“I am one of the happiest people I know, but not in the same way that most people would expect,” Oprah Winfrey recently told People. That’s a pretty bold statement—to claim happiness with such confidence—but the lifestyle mogul has learned that that’s the secret to a fulfilled life. As they say: “Go big or go home.”
Winfrey is happy in ways you may not expect because it’s not her immense success or fame that puts a smile on her face. Nor is it the dozens of Emmys earned by The Oprah Winfrey Show, or the fact that she’s North America’s first Black multi-billionaire. “I live a big life,” she said. “But it’s the simplest things that bring me the greatest joy.”
Call it cliché, but when you have the receipts like Winfrey does, you kind of have to believe something about her approach works. “Gratitude has always been my core,” she continued. “I’ve been journaling since I was 15; I still have my journals from when I was 15. I always end [the day] with the five things that I’m grateful for.”
And they aren’t always immaculate or grand—in fact, they rarely are. “It’s the little things,” she continued. “It’s the paying attention to the suds in the bath and, oh my God, the crisp clean sheets.”
To deliver this intention and other wisdom on happiness to the world, Winfrey teamed up with Harvard professor Arthur C. Brooks to write a book, Build the Life You Want: The Art and Science of Getting Happier, which releases September 12.
In a 2021 essay for Oprah Daily, Winfrey called gratitude her “single most important life practice.”
“What you focus on in your life expands, so focusing on what you’re grateful for increases positive vibrations and feelings of joy,” she explained. “One good feeling builds on another good feeling and another. If you actively appreciate all that you have in life, no matter how small it is, what you’ll notice is you will end up having more. And when you hone in on what you don’t have, you never have enough.”
That’s not to say life is always rainbows and butterflies—even Winfrey struggles to come up with her five uplifting things on some days. “When things don’t easily come to mind, go back to your breath,” she wrote. “Because if you’re breathing, you ought to be grateful. Know that you have that, and simply opening your eyes in the morning and having that breath is a gift.”
Kayla Blanton is a freelance writer-editor who covers health, nutrition, and lifestyle topics for various publications including Prevention, Everyday Health, SELF, People, and more. She’s always open to conversations about fueling up with flavorful dishes, busting beauty standards, and finding new, gentle ways to care for our bodies. She earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Ohio University with specializations in women, gender, and sexuality studies and public health, and is a born-and-raised midwesterner living in Cincinnati, Ohio with her husband and two spoiled kitties.
