International Happiness Day

The International Day of Happiness is celebrated throughout the world on the 20th of March. It was established by the United Nations General Assembly on 28 June 2012 and so is young in its conception but let’s you and us make sure that it is celebrated….

…today and always.

Is happiness something you reach for on the outside?  Is it easy to find?  Can we just hold onto it once we have found it?  Is it measured?  Can it  ‘run out’?

Many questions swirl around about this subject.  Your Two Chums believe that it is a choice and it is everyone’s great privilege to choose it each and every moment.

A couple of years ago, Carolyn Gregoire with the Huffington Post shared these ideas:

Make happiness your number-one goal.

People who are happy choose to make happiness among their top goals in life, according to psychologist Tom G. Stevens, Ph.D., author of You Can Choose to Be Happy.

“Choose to take advantage of opportunities to learn how to be happy,” Stevens shared. “For example, reprogram your beliefs and values. Learn good self-management skills, good interpersonal skills, and good career-related skills. Choose to be in environments and around people that increase your probability of happiness. The persons who become the happiest and grow the most are those who also make truth and their own personal growth primary values.”

Smile your way to happiness.

The secret to boosting your mood could be as simple as making yourself smile. A 2011 Michigan State University study found that workers who smiled as a result of cultivating positive thoughts exhibited improved mood and less withdrawal. Fake smiling, on the other hand, resulted in worse moods and withdrawal from work. So, when you are walking down the street today, smile — smile from within.

Practice gratitude.

Of course, you know how your Two Chums feel about gratitude – a very powerful thing!  Yes, happiness and gratitude are inseparable!  Find gratitude in everything.

Pursue happiness, find happiness — and success.

Conventional thinking has it that pursuing success will lead to happiness, but research has shown that it may be just the opposite. Pursuing happiness leads not only to happiness itself, but also to success, according to Shawn Achor, author of The Happiness Advantage.

“People who cultivate a positive mind-set perform better in the face of challenge,” he writes. “I call this the ‘happiness advantage’ — every business outcome shows improvement when the brain is positive.”

Let yourself be happy.

Bronnie Ware, a palliative care nurse who spent years working with elderly people on their deathbeds, noticed a common theme that came up repeatedly among her patients at the end of their lives: They regretted not “letting” themselves be happy.

Ware, the author of The Top Five Regrets Of The Dying, writes:

“Many did not realize until the end that happiness is a choice.  They had stayed stuck in old patterns and habits.  The s-called ‘comfort’ of familiarity overflowed into their emotions, as well as their physical lives.  Fear of change had them pretending to others, and to their selves, that they were content.  When deep within, they longed to laugh properly and have silliness in their life again….Life is a choice.  It is YOUR life.  Choose consciously, choose wisely, choose honestly.  Choose happiness.”

CHOOSE happiness, today and every day!  Certainly, a more abundant life will show forth.