The power of gratitude in finding happiness is phenomenal.

“Listen to the Exhortation of the Dawn!
Look to this Day!
For it is Life, the very Life of Life.
In its brief course lie all the
Verities and Realities of your Existence.
The Bliss of Growth,
The Glory of Action,
The Splendor of Beauty;
For Yesterday is but a Dream,
And To-morrow is only a Vision;
But To-day


well lived makes
Every Yesterday a Dream of Happiness,
And every Tomorrow a Vision of Hope.
Look well therefore to this Day!
Such is the Salutation of the Dawn!” ~ Kalidasa, Ancient Indian poet and playright.

“Trust yourself. Create the kind of self that you will be happy to live with all your life. Make the most of yourself by fanning the tiny, inner sparks of possibility into flames of achievement.” - Golda Meir, Former Premier of Israel.

Everyone wants to be happy. In their pursuit of happiness some are successful and some not very fortunate. We all live with the objective of being happy; our lives are all different and yet the same. Happiness is a complex path that becomes easy only as we walk it. Happy people have two things in common. They know exactly what they want and they feel they're moving toward getting it. Every morning, when we wake up, we have twenty-four brand-new hours to live. What a precious gift it is! We have the capacity to live in a way that these twenty-four hours will bring peace, joy, and happiness to ourselves and others. That's what makes life feel good: when it has direction, when you are heading straight for what you love. It comes when you believe in what you are doing, know what you are doing, and love what you are doing. Happiness cannot be traveled to, owned, earned, worn or consumed. The truth is that our finest moments are most likely to occur when we are feeling deeply uncomfortable, unhappy, or unfulfilled. For it is only in such moments, propelled by our discomfort, that we are likely to step out of our ruts and start searching for different ways or truer answers for attaining happiness.

There are lots of factors that can improve happiness along the way but the number one trigger is taking 100% responsibility for your own life. That's both a belief and acting on that belief. External influences can sometimes make it easier or harder to be happy but YOU are the #1 cause of happiness. Watch your manner of speech if you wish to develop a peaceful state of mind. Start each day by affirming peaceful, contented and happy attitudes and your days will tend to be pleasant and successful. No one is in control of your happiness but you; therefore, you have the power to change anything about yourself or your life that you want to change. When we feel love and kindness toward others, it not only makes others feel loved and cared for, but it helps us also to develop inner happiness and peace. It comes to those who are moving toward something they want very much to happen. And it almost always involves making someone else happy. Act as if you were already happy and that will tend to make you happy. 

One of the secrets of finding happiness is having an attitude of gratitude. The power of gratitude in finding happiness is phenomenal. Have you noticed that some people who live very difficult lives somehow manage to be happy? How can this be? One of the factors to them finding happiness is in noticing the silver lining in every cloud and being grateful for it. Feeling gratitude never fails to lift anyone’s spirit. Have you tried it? The essence of this philosophy of happiness is that a man should so live that his happiness shall depend as little as possible on external things. Well, something we need to know is happiness is a choice. Happiness is not a blessing, a gift or a reward. It is a choice. It is also a result of choices made. If you are unhappy it is because you are choosing to be unhappy. Your choice to be unhappy may not be one that you made consciously. More than likely you made it with your unconscious mind. Some people choose with their subconscious minds to be happy.

Is it possible to be happy for no reason? Yes, it's exactly the brand of happiness that I want you all to strive to achieve. There will always be many actual reasons why you are happy, but they culminate in a near-constant state of being that you would call "happy for no reason". Being happy doesn’t mean everything is perfect. It means you have decided to look beyond the imperfections. There can be flaws in your life, economically, socially, professionally and even in relationship that makes you unhappy, but you are the one who can ultimately dwell upon those flaws and be content with all that you have or you are associated with. Being happy without being able to attribute that happiness to any one particular cause equals someone that could be called a happy person, as opposed to a person who is happy.

In spite of all the turmoils in my life I have seeked happiness in stillness of my life. So you might ask why does stillness (of mind and body) shows me the trail to happiness? Well, my guess is, if you are reading this, you want to but you’re not really sure how to be happy. I'll tell you now that I don't know what will make you happy. The only person who knows is you. Ah, now I hear you arguing with me, but wait, I'll explain.

The fact is that YOU, the real you, not the mask you wear every day in public, knows what it takes for you to be happy. So you need to get in touch with this real you. The only way to do that is to be quiet, with no distractions and listen to your inner-self. If you do this each day for about 15 to 30 minutes, to listen to the inner-self you’re real self. Your higher self will then start to communicate with you. It might take a few days but you will get in touch with your inner wisdom. So once you can hear your still small voice within, you just have to listen and act on what you hear and you will find authentic happiness. I can tell that moving towards your own authentic happiness you will have to consider which fork in the road to take on life's journey. You will notice that you get teary with emotion - neither happy nor sad, but just emotion. And then you will realise that how important it is to consider doing something that your inner voice dictates for you to be very important. You will no doubt have a different signal from the outside to mar your judgement. Your only task is to notice and listen what signals your conscience is sending you. Just follow those leads. You are sure to reap happiness in your life.

As Jim Rohn says, happiness is not an accident. Nor is it something you wish for. Happiness is something you design. And since the design starts within your mind you are the architect of your happiness. Happiness is the spiritual experience of living every minute with love, grace and gratitude. Live up to it, to discover your gold mine of happiness.