Happiness is not something that happens to you, although it can. Happiness is an option which is encouraged by thought in each moment. At times, it may feel like work to raise one’s thoughts and emotions to joy and happiness, however, this is your natural state. It is the mind’s insistence on the negative, the worry, the producing of cash flow, the assumption of things going wrong that eliminates the possibility of the rays of joy to shine through. We feel as if it only “happens to us” when we stumble upon a sunset or a moon rising adorned by one star or awaiting the arrival of loved ones. But joy can be ours at any given moment as that is our natural state of being. No other. How do we invite happiness and joy back in? We grease the wheels and start them turning by getting in the habit of noticing our thoughts in any given moment rather than being automatic as if we are at their mercy. Instead, we are in total control of our thoughts, and habits are hard to break. But we can gently steer when we feel off course. Gently we can nudge ourselves back to a place of peace and understanding of others when we judge and see them as “not as perfect as us.” Just as we are sometimes judged by others, we want others to realize we are just as good as we believe ourselves to be. This intention brings understanding of others – without judgment but rather a simple, quiet Love. Thereby, we give ourselves permission to be happy in that moment of understanding of ourselves and others. When we learn to string these moments together, we have more happiness and happiness becomes a habit, not something we wait in vain for. Let happiness become a habit. Develop a habit of happiness. It may sound like a lot of work, but as with any new habit formed, it is done over and over with patience until we learn this new way of being and it falls into place naturally without effort.

Try nudging your thoughts into a lighter, easier place, allowing for letting go of worry, letting go of judgment of self and others, of fear. Let it be and let yourself become happy, joyful, peaceful in every moment. Each moment becomes the next as in droplets of dew collecting until they become a small unending stream, a tiny river on a leaf following its course without obstruction, going around, following curves, sliding around and over bumps on its way. Be like this water, easy. Start with moments of droplets of good feeling thought until they stream together, easy and natural, unending, because that is truly who you are.