How To Find True Happiness
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One shortcut to happiness emanates from knowing that we have done something good and right – Isn’t that simple?

Observe yourself. What did you feel when you have learned new skills? How about when you were able to touch someone through your generosity and kindness? How do you feel when you have done something heroic? What do you feel when you have done something that you truly love and enjoy?

The deep feelings of satisfaction, contentment, pride, fulfillment, and joy are some of the emotions which lead to lasting happiness.

We seek happiness practically every day of our lives. Despite our efforts, many of us are not happy. Everyone’s life is spent in pursuit of happiness. We become too busy and preoccupied, working to ensure that our future will be secured and happy. We tend to let days, months, and even years slip by without realizing that “time is gold.”

It is fine to work towards future goals, but do not forget that today will never come again. We only have twenty-four hours to enjoy it so we should take every opportunity to make ourselves happy, including the people we love.

How many minutes, hours, and days have we spent being happy from within? Those are the only moments we have really lived life. Perhaps, we were just kids then when we were completely happy and worry-free, or there were few moments when we were doing something we really love and enjoy.

“Happiness is a journey, not a destination; happiness is to be found along the way not at the end of the road, for then the journey is over and it's too late. The time for happiness is today not tomorrow," said Paul Dunn.

Many of us spend much of our lives worrying about the future and a number of things – all at the same time. We allow past problems and future concerns to dominate our present moments, so much so that we end up feeling frustrated and depressed.

When our attention is in the present moment, we push away fear from our minds. Fear is the concern over events that might happen in the future. To overcome fear, the best strategy is to learn to bring our attention back to the present. We must practice keeping our attention on the present. Surely, our efforts will pay off in the end.

Live in the moment with joy, alertness, awareness, and compassion. The thought of being like a child again is exhilarating. This stems from being free and feeling at home with everybody. This emanates from living without barriers, judgments, and worries about what others might think.

Whatever they think, it is their opinion and is NOT PERMANENT. Keep in mind those opinions change all the time. Worrying takes a lot of toll on the body and mind. It is like a wind that takes us away from ourselves. Worrying leads only to fear and can paralyze us from taking appropriate actions.

We free our minds from worries by relaxing and doing some breathing exercises. A simple breathing exercise consists of inhaling deep breath through the nose and exhaling through the mouth. Do this three times consecutively. This will help put our minds at ease and has a calming effect. By doing this on regular intervals, we will then find so much peace and harmony around. Remember that the art of living lies in living at the present moment.

Many of us aspire to live a life filled with love. For this to happen, the effort must start from us. Rather than waiting for other people to provide the love we desire, we must be the source of love ourselves. Our attitude, choices, acts of kindness, and willingness to be the first to reach out, will take us towards this goal. By converting our hearts to fountains of love, we are taking an important step in getting the love we desire. We will also discover that the more love we give, the more we will receive.

It is very important that we realize the relationship between our thoughts and the way we feel. Did you know that we are constantly thinking? Take breathing for example. Unless we feel that we are running out of breath, we simply forget that we breathe automatically.

Thinking works the same way. Since we are always doing it, it is easy to forget that it is happening. To think is to create. Everything starts in the mind. What precedes the feeling of anger? Angry thoughts precede anger. Have you tried getting angry without having angry thoughts first? Try feeling sad without sad thoughts. It is impossible!

In order to experience a feeling, we must first have the thought that induces that feeling. Happiness cannot exist alone. It is the result of positive thinking. This simple awareness is the first step in putting us back on the path towards happiness.

We should never underestimate the power of a simple thought. It may seem so innocent and fleeting; yet, it has energy that can cause great impact on our mind, body, and emotions.

Let us think of a lemon. Imagine cutting it in half and smelling it. Now, imagine squeezing the juice from the lemon into your mouth and feel those pulp bits bursting inside your mouth. Most of us will surely feel our salivary glands responding to the thought of lemon.

Indeed, what we are thinking can greatly influence our emotions. Think of someone you love. What do you feel? Now think of someone you hate. What do you feel? We do not have to change our emotions consciously – just change our thoughts and our emotions will immediately follow.

Notice that when we focus our mind on positive things, we feel better, whereas when our thoughts are focused on the negative, we feel bad. Positive thoughts yield positive results. These thoughts make us more loving and caring, resulting to good health, wealth, and happiness. On the other hand, negative thoughts produce negative results. These types of thoughts result to indifference, disease, fear and misery, etc. In other words, our thoughts create our reality.

Fourth key to happiness: Happy feelings are results of happy thoughts.