The surprising way to feel happier: there's a proven technique to getting more pleasure out of life: staying in--and savoring--the moment. Sounds easy, but it takes a few mental tricks to accomplish.(You You You)

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Question: What were you doing right before you picked up this magazine? You may have been sipping a latte or listening to music, but chances are, your head was elsewhere--ruminating about something from the past or plotting about the future, like that guy you hope will call or the Hawaiian island you plan to visit once you can finally take off time from work. It's a perfectly common state of being. But by never experiencing the moment, we miss the chance to savor life's many small pleasures, like that latte and chocolate-chip scone. In fact, studies show that simply being aware of what's happening this minute is linked to greater optimism, self-confidence, and happiness.

Of course, the question is, how do you stay mindful like that? Well, it takes some effort, honestly. There are distractions in every modern woman's life that make just being in the present difficult. But once you see what the snags are, you can navigate around them to a more pleasurable existence. "And when you're not distracted by all the things you're juggling mentally, you see things with more clarity," says psychologist Sylvia Boorstein, PhD, author of Happiness Is an Inside Job. "That helps you make better decisions and be more resilient when you hit hard times." So start here to free yourself from the stuff that holds you back from being happy right about now.

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* Savor the Mini Moments

Part of what makes your 20s and 30s so awesome are celebrations that spotlight how far you've come as an adult. But those graduations, engagements, and promotions aren't finish lines. They're just markers along the path.

"Investing too much emotion in thinking about exactly how you'll feel when something big happens--like 'I will be so happy when I'm finally walking down the aisle'--may prevent you from enjoying what actually happens," says Daniel Siegel, MD, author of The Developing Mind and associate clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of California at Los Angeles. "The end result may not look quite the way you thought it would ... or even appear at all."