I’ve been thinking a lot lately about happiness. What makes me happy, when I am happy and when I am not.

So often we expect happiness to come automatically, whether it is because of a place, a time, a person or a result but actually, the only person who can make us happy is ourselves.

We can decide to be happy – or not.

Have you ever talked to a person who by all the ‘normal’ parameters in life should be unhappy, when they are actually almost always smiling and content with what life has to give them. It also works the other way, people who seem, on the surface, to have everything they need are often not happy at all.
I recently saw this quote by Buddha ‘The mind knows no answers, the heart knows no questions’

It took me a while to realise that in effect what he was saying is it’s our hearts, not our minds, that lead us in the right direction and letting go of expectations and listening to our hearts is what brings us happiness.

In other words, get out of the way, so that we can learn what truly makes us happy, not the things that are ‘supposed’ to do that such as a good job, an expensive car or house, a partner, losing weight or being rich, but rather the things that bring true happiness. This is going to be different for everyone and that’s what makes it so hard. We have to learn to stop and listen to the tiny voice inside of us trying to tell us our truth. There is so much noise in our world, both figuratively and actually, and so much rush that that quiet voice often finds it hard to make itself heard.

So, I have decided I am going to let myself be happy. I know I am a much happier person than I was a couple of years ago, but I also know I have a way to go. I am going to take some time each day to sit still and listen to that voice. I know I need to learn what MY true happiness is, not what I think it should be, or what other people think, but what truly makes me happy. I need to listen to the authentic me.

I am also going to start a gratitude journal because how can I really be unhappy when I think about all the wonderful things, people and circumstances in my life! Even on the worst day possible there is always going to be something I am grateful for 🙂