Happiness is an inside job

What is happiness?

We all know we want it, but what is it? Is it contentment, joy, pleasure, peace, relaxation, satisfaction, wellbeing or other pleasant emotions?

I think it’s all these feelings and more. Put simply, you could say happiness is feeling good – about yourself, other people, a situation or life in general.

I used to focus on (worry, obsess, think repetitively about) the things that weren’t going well, things that (I believed) were stopping my happiness. If I could just change these things, then I would be happy. I felt unhappy all the time that I worried, fretted or thought about what was making me unhappy.

Now I distract myself from what’s not working in my life by thinking (as much as I can) about the things I’m thankful for and the people I love. And, you guessed it, I feel happy right then, regardless of what else is going on in my life.

When I think of what gives me good feelings, the rest is more manageable. I’ve actually chosen to feel happy, rather than overwhelmed, miserable, sad, unhappy etc. I’m feeling good rather than wasting time and energy feeling negative feelings.

I realise that I can choose my feelings. And so can you! I’ve found the more I practise focusing on the good feeling things in my life, the easier and easier it gets to maintain a positive attitude and feel all those good feelings.

So you don’t have to wait till everything in your life is going just the way you want it to be. You can be happy now.