Happiness cannot be traveled to, owned, earned, worn or consumed. Happiness is the spiritual experience of living every minute with love, grace and gratitude. `Denis Waitley 

 

A little boy looked up at his older brother as they walked along the side of the road, skipping rocks as they walked along the way.  

“Danny? What do you want to be when you grow up?” 

The older child kicked half-heartedly at a larger stone with the side of his worn out shoe, watching as it skittered out of the way. “I don’t know, just happy I guess.” 

The younger child, not to be outdone, found an even larger stone and winding his leg backward, with all the gusto he could manage, pushed forward and gave his stone a hard enough smack to send it flying up and sailing into the blue sky until it disappeared into the golden wheat field far up ahead. He peered up at his brother, a proud, happy satisfied look spreading over his cherub cheeks. “Why you want to wait till you grow up for that? You can be that right now!” 

  

Happiness is here. Right here, right now, this very minute. Like the small boy who could reach out and grab its energy, feel its power and shine, grin and feel the satisfaction that all is right with the world, happiness is there for you to grab on to.

It never leaves. We leave it. We walk away, walk into the shadows, focus on the darkness and negativity and watch and wait while ugliness eats at our soul.

Then wonder why we don’t feel so good.

Happiness is a source. A power to be tapped into, a bright light of gratitude, love and grace that when applied- with faith and enthusiasm-can shatter the darkest night, slay the foulest enemy and turn the most hopeless of situations into amazing hope and miracles.

Don’t believe me? Give it a try.

To sad to be glad?

Fake it till you make it.

What do I mean by that? Maybe not what you think.

What I don’t mean is sitting around a dank dark room of naysayers and doom and gloomers, listening to the end of the world speech and trying to cheer them up while all the while you feel like you are dying inside. If you can’t swim, don’t try to be someone else’s life jacket. Get out of the water. Quick. Get to solid dry land.

What I also don’t mean is plastering a fake smile on your face and lying to everyone. “How are you?”  Fine. you tell them, while all the while you feel shriveled up and empty. Hiding your pain behind a clown’s smile will never make you happy. It will make you disappear.

What I do mean is go get rescued. Immediately, no matter how much you aren’t in the mood, go find some upbeat, positive energy, love-soaking, head on straight folks to warm yourself up in the sun with.

Find happy people.

The good news is they leak. They are contagious. Find really happy people. Find people who surround themselves with laughter and laugh with them. Even if the first handful of times the sound is unfamiliar to your ears and sounds rusty. Even if for awhile, you feel wooden and hollow and as if everything they say and do is like a foreign language. Hang in there. If you’ve been in the dark for a long time, staring into the light takes awhile for your body to adjust. The sun is bright after all.

Find people who form happy networks of other happy people. Don’t know any? Some of them read this blog. We have a happy community here. Check out their links. Happy people like to hang out with other happy people. If you find one, you’ll find another. They aren’t selfish. They will share you with their friends.

Find people who know what the meaning of the word grace is. Happy people live in grace. They don’t judge others. they don’t live in houses made of glass. When you hang out with these people, you feel freer. More relaxed. You can be yourself without fear of ridicule or judgment. You will smile more, sleep better. Maybe even eat less. Really.

Find people who live grateful.

 Happy people are grateful. Happy people are satisfied and don’t always need that one more thing to be content. They take pleasure in the moment and they can take pleasure in you and the delightful things you bring into their lives. You will feel more appreciated when you hang out with grateful people. You will soon feel like opening up, doing more, giving more, being more creative! Life is more joyful when you life more grateful.

Find people who know the meaning of the word love.

I’m not talking about falling in love. However, that does often happen with loving people. I’m talking about people who understand soul love. Friendship love. The kind of love that happens when two people make a connection and want to see each other grow and prosper and reach a synergistic partnership that feeds everyone’s spirit. That kind of love is magic.

That kind of magic is the most powerful magic is the universe. It can’t ever be stopped. That kind of magic creates hope. That kind of magic creates happiness.

Want more happiness? Just take it. It’s already yours.

 

It’s November. Thanksgiving in America. Here at Life’s Little Inspirations, November is Gratitude month. All month long we will be celebrating with posts and reflections on gratitude, love and grace. If you would like to join in the conversation or write a guest post for our topic just let me know! Please contact me or leave a comment below 

 What are you grateful for?