I'm
a great believer that everyone should be responsible for their own happiness.
It always seems crazy to me that anyone would put their happiness or lack of it
in the hands of another person. Yet so many people blame their partner or their
family or their boss or the government for doing something that makes them unhappy.
Everyone
experiences trials in their life, but even when times are tough and testing,
there are always bright spots we can focus on to keep give us pleasure and keep
us going. I believe happiness is all about attitude, about being optimistic and
looking for the good things in life.
In
my life there are countless small things that bring me pleasure each day,
kissing my husband, my first cup of coffee, watering my seedlings and seeing
how they've grown, playing with my dog, watching her chase after her toys and
playing tug-of-war with some poor stuffed animal that has lost most of its
stuffing. Walking around my garden and noticing the buds grow and the flowers
bloom and the leaves fall as the seasons change.
If
one looks for them, there are numerous things that can bring a spark of
pleasure to the day, even when there are troubles. One just has to be open to
them.
Quotes
about happiness:
“Thousands of
candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will
not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared.”
Buddha
“Don’t rely on
someone else for your happiness and self-worth. Only you can be responsible for
that. If you can’t love and respect yourself – no one else will be able to make
that happen. Accept who you are – completely; the good and the bad – and make changes
as YOU see fit – not because you think someone else wants you to be different.”
Stacey Charter
“It isn’t what
you have, or who you are, or where you are, or what you are doing that makes
you happy or unhappy. It is what you think about.”
Dale Carnegie
“We tend to
forget that happiness doesn’t come as a result of getting something we don’t
have, but rather of recognizing and appreciating what we do have.”
Frederick Keonig
“To be kind to
all, to like many and love a few, to be needed and wanted by those we love, is
certainly the nearest we can come to happiness.”
Mary Stuart
“Success is not
the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are
doing, you will be successful.”
Herman Cain
“When one door
of happiness closes, another opens, but often we look so long at the closed
door that we do not see the one that has been opened for us.”
Helen Keller
“Happiness
depends upon ourselves.”
Aristotle
“It’s been my
experience that you can nearly always enjoy things if you make up your mind
firmly that you will.”
L.M. Montgomery
“Very little is
needed to make a happy life; it is all within yourself, in your way of
thinking.”
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus
“The happiest
people in the world are those who feel absolutely terrific about themselves,
and this is the natural outgrowth of accepting total responsibility for every
part of their life.”
Brian Tracy
“I, not events,
have the power to make me happy or unhappy today. I can choose which it shall
be. Yesterday is dead, tomorrow hasn’t arrived yet. I have just one day, today,
and I’m going to be happy in it.”
Groucho Marx
What
things in your life bring you happiness?
Helen lives in
South West England near Plymouth in Devon between the windswept expanse of
Dartmoor and the rocky Atlantic coast. As well as her wonderful, long-suffering
husband, she shares her home with a Westie and a burmilla cat. Helen has one of
her Army Doctor stories in the
Hearts
& Kisses boxed set. (This set includes both sweet and steamy books.)
Find Helen on
FaceBook
and
Twitter, or visit her
website.
