Just for Today…I will be happy. This assumes to be true what Abraham Lincoln said, that “Most folks are as happy as they make up their minds to be.”

I read this today and thought to myself that implies that happiness is a choice. When this idea of happiness being a choice was first brought to my attention several years ago, that conflicted so strongly with my belief system, I assumed it must be a lie. But the more I thought about that as a possibility, the more I thought “Wouldn’t that be nice”. And still yet, the more I thought about it some more, I thought “Maybe they know something I don’t”. So, very slowly, my ideas about happiness began to be riddled full of holes and over time, I began to realize that it was MY closely held belief about happiness that was the lie!

Today, I know that happiness is, in fact, a choice. But having a choice implies that I must choose it, consciously select something and sometimes I just plain forget that I have to make the choice to be happy. I passively backslide into old thinking patterns that tell me my happiness is determined by what is going on around me. What a powerless way to live! I don’t have much power over other people or outcomes, but I do have power over me. And I most definitely have the power to choose to be happy.

So then, I wonder, what action does one take to choose to be happy? Well, for me, sometimes it means setting a boundary or saying “No”. Sometimes, it means not starting a conversation with someone just to make a point that they’re wrong. Sometimes, it means having the discipline to do what needs to be done, so I am free to do what I want to do. Sometimes, it means asking for what I want and surrendering the answer to whomever I may be asking. Sometimes, choosing happy means alot of things, but always, choosing happiness means regardless of what is going on–good or bad–that I be intensely present.

Choosing happiness is exercising my faith muscle that everything has always been exactly as it should be and will always be exactly as it is supposed to be. If I believe that, then there is absolutely no reason to choose anything other than to be happy.