How to Find Happiness

O Happiness!

Happiness is so elusive, isn’t it? You feel it and then life happens and you do not feel it anymore.

The constitution of the United States guarantees its citizens the right to “the pursuit of happiness.” When I read Marci Schimoff’s book, “Happy for No Reason,” she said that she bumped into someone who had studied linguistics and he informed her that in 1776, when the US constitution was written, “the pursuit of happiness” was the common term for what we would consider today to be “practicing happiness.”

You see, cultivating happiness is a habit. Many folks are addicted to being grumpy and finding fault with everything.

However, you can change your thinking. You can find small things to be grateful about.

Think back to your childhood. What were the things you liked to do that just made you plain happy? Play with play dough? Write? Read? Color with crayons? Do those activities again.

I love seeing beautiful flowers in bloom. It literally makes me happy!

Find different ways to connect with things that make you happy. Think of  your senses. Is it a smell that makes you happy? Is it a taste? Something you hear like music? Something you touch, like fabric or stroking your cat? Is it visual, like looking at beautiful flowers?

Get in tune with what makes you happy. Can I give you a hint? Think back to your childhood. Kids have a way of finding happiness in almost everything. Remember your childhood and all the fun things that made you happy. Engage in those things all over again.

Tell me something unusual that makes you happy?