Happiness

When are you happy?
Is it when the sun is shining, and the weather is good, nice warm? When the days are long during the Summer? Or when everybody gathers in the dark of Winter?
Are you happy when things go ‘your way’? When you are appreciated ~ when others are telling you you are doing good?

Often, when we describe what makes us happy it are things outside of ourselves that we notice make us happy. Children at play, kittens, puppies, the things with a high ‘ahhhh’ factor; things that make us smile. Surprisingly, our relationship make it on that list a lot less than one would think...
What does make it on that list are ‘winning the lottery’, ‘helping others’.

Funny thing is that almost all of the above are things that are either outside of our control or directed at someone other than ourselves. Over the last couple of months, the things that someone told me made them happy that were closest to one’s self were ‘staying out of trouble’ and ‘doing the right thing’.

When you think about it, this makes happiness a very elusive thing ~ maybe even something that is hard to attain.
When our perspective on something we want, like happiness, is that receiving it is dependent on others, or even on things that are outside of our control (like the weather, or winning the lottery) it becomes a difficult thing to get. When we can only be happy when the sun shines, or when we win the lottery ~ we set ourselves up for lots of times when happiness is out of reach for us...

So what is the alternative? How can we be happy more consistently; or at least more often?
The answer has to lie within ourselves. If we can change our perspective from: ‘being happy is instigated by something that is outside of us’ to: ‘being happy is something that starts inside of ourselves’, all of a sudden we tend to link happiness with fulfillment, contentment, and expressing our unique potential.
And these are things that are within our realm of influence! We can chose to so those things that make us feel fulfilled. We can chose to express our personal uniqueness in a way that makes us feel good ~ in a way that makes us happy.

Looking at myself, I know that the outside factors most definitely can help me make those choices... For me, on sunny days being happy is easier than on days when rain and wind make me want to stay close to the fire place...
Yet, as far as happiness is concerned, I am well aware that it is a choice that is mine to make!

Choose to be happy!!