Choose Happiness
We have to choose to be happy and keep choosing it.
Henri J.M. Nouwen
New Year resolutions, anybody…? I’ve made one, plus a checklist to keep it up for at least 66 days (the average time it takes to form a new habit)!
One of my life-changing habits is the result of a resolution I made years ago: choosing to be happy. When I wake up in the morning, the first thing I consciously do is to smile. I smile to myself and to the brand-new day, and I decide to meet everybody and everything with a smile. That’s already a good start.
Of course, not everything that happens to me, not everything that I see or hear about “makes me happy”. Still I choose to have a positive outlook on life. I let the little things in life fill me with joy and awe, and I am happy simply to be alive.
I have to actively choose happiness again and again, every day, in every situation. Even when it has become my second nature to be happy, I will still have to face difficult people and situations. The challenge is to choose happiness in such moments, that is dealing with them with a benevolent heart and mind.
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