Daring to be happy

Just needed to share this bit of news: today begins National Happiness Week.   Just think, an entire week devoted to an awareness of being happy.  When it comes to happiness, I've always resonated with the words attributed to Abe Lincoln " Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be."  There's a real nugget of wisdom in those words, happiness is an attitude you choose.

Attitudes are all about our expectations and expectations are what we anticipate will occur in life. Attitudes are actually magic threads  weaving experiences of living into a story.  I think of attitudes as magic threads because attitudes are created from the power of deliberately choosing our thoughts.  Our thoughts - how we choose to see life - are the energy propelling us forward into our living.

So, given that take on Abe's words, this is the week of deliberately  choosing the energy - the qualities - of being happy.   A quality is the distinctive attributes - components - of something.  So what are the components an attitude of happiness? 

Heading to my dictionary I discovered the the distinctive qualities or attitudes needed for choosing to experience happiness are: pleasure,  cheerful, glad, delighted, pleased, enjoyment. Here's an explanation of what each of those qualities 'look' like.

Pleasure - feeling satisfied or fulfilled.  What experiences today were satisfying? Take the time to name them (easier to repeat if we remember to name) and enjoy the pleasure of feeling satisfied. Dare to be pleased with the day's moments of pleasure. Dare to feel pleasure.

Cheerful - disposed to see the good and therefore in good spirits.

What you 'see' is what you become.  Make up your mind to take time to see the things that speak goodness to you -  breathe in the goodness of what you are seeing. Dare to see moments of goodness and breathe them in and filling your Spirit with goodness.

Glad - eager to give joy.  Isn't that interesting, being glad is about giving - sharing - sending forth.  Joy is awareness of blessing. Choose a blessing to give today.  Feel the gladness of sharing your goodness. Dare to deliberately see yourself as a blessing to life.

Enjoyment - the awareness of appreciating. Appreciating is about acknowledging, that is recognizing and then saying thank you.  How many thank yous can you say out loud today? Dare to be extravagant with your joy.

Pleased - experiencing favor: support and approval. The interesting part of this quality is that 'courtesy' is the way in which support and approval are expressed.  Today choose to be courteous to yourself thereby experiencing support and approval for your unique you. Dare to be pleased with you .  Dare to name what is pleasing about your life.

There was a second part to the definition of happiness that I think fits well with Abe's words: knowing you are fortunate or lucky.  

"Fortunate and lucky," sound a whole like having an attitude of gratitude which I nourish with another idea all God asks is for you to be open to the 100 blessings placed in your day each day and everyday.  Knowing you have one hundred blessings today just waiting to be found is a pretty strong clue to knowing you are fortunate and lucky.

Willingness to being open to your one hundred gifts or blessings sounds like a great garden to plant the seeds of happiness in.  What are the seeds?  All the qualities listed above.  Which ones are you willing to plant into your mind and life this week? How daring about living happily are you willing to be?