When I was a kid I wasn't very happy. People would ask me what I wanted to be when I grew up and instead of saying I want to be a pilot or a bank teller, I said I wanted to be happy. I guess that reach for inner peace and happiness has been what has driven my life.

• Surround yourself with happy people. When we surround ourselves with complainers and worriers, we learn how to complain and worry. When we surround ourselves with happy people we learn how to be happy. Watch what they do, how they live and what they say.
• Do a Metta (Lovingkindness) meditation every day. If you have trouble finding time, do a short version in the shower. Offering a genuine wish for all beings to be happy raises the "happy" factor in your own life. It's good karma. You'll find an example here: Metta Meditation
• Connect each morning with the natural world. This can be done on the way to the car or to the bus or on the way to work. Quiet your mind just a little and let yourself notice that tree in the next yard, or the lake as you drive by it on the way into town. Let yourself feel a sense of wonder that we live in a world that includes such amazing things. This is easily done with delicious food, too. A moment to marvel that we live in a world that includes chocolate, well...
• Practice saying something kind to somebody every day. Keep track that you do this every day. Do it especially with people you don't like. Just be sure it's authentic. It gets easier, and gives amazing results.
• Say a Gratitude meditation at bedtime every night when you say your prayers. To fall asleep with a positive thought makes for sweet dreams and a happier awakening. You can find one on this page: Bedtime Meditation

Negative thinking can become so deeply a part of our usual pattern that we often don't realize just how negative it is - until we stop and see that we are simply not happy. But the fix can be easier than we imagine. Just these five things can change us deeply.

They did for me.

Stories like these are a regular feature of my free monthly Ezine, Starry Night. Subscribe today!

All content Copyright © Janet Dane unless otherwise stated.