How to be happy is a question asked throughout the ages. Everyone wonders how to “find” happiness and people wondered about it a thousand years ago and probably will in a thousand more.
We all wander after happiness and go on elusive, sometimes epic journey’s to find the secret…the key…to happiness. Some people search their whole lives, never able to find it. There’s actually a good reason why they may never find it — the reason is, happiness is not a person, place or thing that we find. Happiness is, in reality, something we choose — its something which we determine that we want and that we will accept.
Dr. Norman Vincent Peale, the author of “The Power of Positive Thinking,” had these pointers on how to be happy
Six Ways to Happiness
1. Don’t Hate
2. Don’t Worry
3. Live Simply
4. Expect Less
5. Give More
6. Scatter Sunshine
Dr. Peale is correct — the six ways he points out are in truth, vital to being happy. I’d like to add in a couple more though, including:
1. Determine to be happy: one cannot be happy, if one is not ready and willing to be happy. That means, letting go of negative things and making the personal choice to be happy.
2. Accept that happiness is lifelong and not a person, place or thing. We can feel happy for a while, like when we get something we’ve always desired, but that is a feeling of happiness and not lasting happiness. Lasting happiness is when we are content in our life — we’re settled, working on our goals and doing things that give us peace and purpose.
3. Stop chasing happiness: we can want it, but we at some point, need to stop searching for it — once we’ve realized that we’re where we want to be and that we’re content, then why keep searching for something we actually already have.
Today, go forth and be happy! Enjoy life and make it a fulfilled life in which you thrive and excel.
