Be Happy Today - Because You Choose to be Happy

The key to happiness is not to have what you want
but to want what you have.
- Anonymous

Happiness is when what you think, what you say,
and what you do are in harmony.
- Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi

You can not find happiness by chasing after it.
Happiness comes from doing what you love to do,
and from being who you truly are.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Happiness is the absence of the striving for happiness.
- Zhuangzi

The only reason you suffer is because you choose to suffer.
The only reason you are happy is because you choose to be happy.
Happiness is a choice, and so is suffering.
- don Miguel Ruiz

Happiness is not a brilliant climax to years of grim struggle and anxiety.
It is a long succession of little decisions
simply to be happy in the moment.
- J. Donald Walters

You don't need a reason to be happy,
just a choice.
Happiness is the Choice to be Happy in This Moment
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

One can flow harmoniously with the River of Life -
or one can struggle fearfully against the River -
and the River just flows.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: The Secret of Happiness

Ten Little Tips to Feel Happier Right Now

Simple Pleasures

How to be Happy in Life by Breaking the Cycle of Self-Inflicted Suffering

Choose To Be Happy
      

Discovery Your Life Path and Follow It

It's work only if I say it's work,
but it's play if I say it's fun.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

People rarely succeed unless they have fun in what they are doing.
- Dale Carnegie

It's kind of fun to do the impossible.
- Walt Disney

What work I have done I have done because it has been play.
If it had been work I shouldn't have done it.
- Mark Twain

If we like what we do, if we always do our best,
then we are really enjoying life.
We are having fun, we don't get bored,
we don't have frustrations.
- don Miguel Ruiz

Further reading: Cherish the Whimsey

Dream. Begin. Persevere.

Realizing Success

We Come This Way But Once

Bounce Back
      

Forgive - Again and Again

Forgiveness is unlocking the door
to set someone free
and realizing you were the prisoner!
- Max Lucado

To err is human, to forgive divine.
- Alexander Pope

Forgiveness is an act of self-love.
- don Miguel Ruiz

Resentment is a Prison.
It is not easy to forgive,
but make the effort again and again.
Nothing else you can ever do in life
will repay you as richly as forgiving
and loving those you have called enemy.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

I can only have peace of mind
when I forgive rather than judge.
- Gerald Jampolsky

Further reading: Forgiveness Releases the PastAre You The Prisoner?

Treat ALL with Goodness

The Futility of Regret
   

Choose Where You Focus Your Attention

Within you, there is a stillness and a sanctuary
to which you can retreat at anytime and be yourself.
- Hermann Hesse

Breathe; let go; relax; forgive.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

Learn to become still.
And to take your attention away from what you don't want,
and all the emotional charge around it,
and place your attention on what you wish to experience.
- Michael Beckwith

In the midst of movement and chaos,
keep stillness inside of you.
- Deepak Chopra

Never let frustration or disappointment tarnish your appreciation for
all that is good in life.
Every day say Thank You to the source of all
that is good.
The essence of your true being dwells in stillness; meet yourself there.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Solitude vs. Feeling Lonely

A Mind that is Still

Keep Stillness

Breath by Breath

Know the Difference

Let Go and Accept This Moment
    

Fully Engage with Life

The key to success, and to happiness,
is being fully engaged in life -
leading yourself with inspiration and committed action -
setting your own fine and honorable example.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Alas for those that never sing,
But die with all their music in them!
- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

Wherever you go, go with all your heart.
- Confucius

You can choose to follow your heart always.
- don Miguel Ruiz

Further reading: I Dreamed a Dream

Live With Enthusiasm

Think Big, Act Big

Choose to Follow Your Heart
   

Have Gratitude, and Pay It Forward

TODAY, consider performing an act-of-kindness for someone who can never repay you.

Sometimes our light goes out but
is blown into flame by another human being.
Each of us owes deepest thanks
to those who have rekindled this light.
- Albert Schweitzer

Each of us has been generously gifted by parents, teachers, mentors, and others we can never repay. So, in gratitude for what we have received, it is now our turn to generously gift the children, the up-and-coming, and the down-and-out -- with no expectation that they can ever repay us - and with the hope that they will, in turn, pay-forward to another generation.

Pay It Forward.
Gift future generations in proportion to your gratitude.
The nature of life is that we pay forward
our biological creation and nurture.
Our parents gift us with life and nurture,
and we gift our children with life and nurture.
While this much is essential to continued human existence,
choose to take "pay it forward" farther - much farther.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

The debt of gratitude we owe our mother and father
goes forward, not backward.
What we owe our parents is the bill presented to us by our children.
- Nancy Friday

The moment you become miserly you are closed
to the basic phenomenon of life: expansion, sharing.
The moment you start clinging to things,
you have missed the target.
Because things are not the target,
you, your innermost being, is the target -
not a beautiful house, but a beautiful you;
not much money, but a rich you;
not many things, but an open being,
available to millions of things.
- Osho

Further reading: Pay It Forward - as an Expression of Universal Gratitude

Opportunity for Daily Thanksgiving

True Measure of a Successful Life

Universal Kindness and Compassion
    

Assumptions and Expectations Limit Growth

You can't base your life on other people's expectations.
- Stevie Wonder

Question every Assumption and Expectation.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

It is a better thing to weigh and measure priorities
in the illuminating light of your own mission
than to have your activities formed by the
impressions and expectations of others.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

"You always..." and "you never..." are code phrases for
"you don't meet my expectations, so I am declaring you inadequate and unacceptable."
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

People see you as an object, not as a person,
and they project a set of expectations onto you.
- Candice Bergen

Other People's Expectations are NOT Your Life's Marching Orders.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

[Your inner] Peace is a choice,
and it has nothing to do with
what other people do or think.
- Gerald Jampolsky

Take time to contemplate -
away from the opinions and influence of others -
what you really want
and what you believe to be important in your life.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Choice, Not Obligation

A Choice for Joy

Value Your Self Respect

Criticism and Complaint