Smile!

What am I talking about when I say "happiness"?  What are you talking about when you say something like, "I want to be happy."  What is it that you are really looking for?  What is happiness and where does it come from?

When I am happy it's a feeling of peace and contentment with the place I am in right then.  It's almost a complete arrival into a moment.  My mind isn't wishing to be somewhere else.  There isn't a past, or necessarily a future.  I'm fully encompassed in the now and feeling great about it; pure positivity.  Can you describe how you feel when you are happy?  It isn't the easiest thing to put into words.  But when we know our own personal answer to what it is we are looking for, it will be easier to find.

Think of the times in your life when you were the happiest.  Who were you with?  What were you doing?  Was there a specific reason why you felt happy?  My happiest moments are various events but the most recurring incidents of happiness were with my family.  Like the times when we got together with my aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents and sat around and talked, had jam sessions with our various instruments and levels of talents or best off all our family game of Cut-Throat Solitaire! (Which by the way I am currently the family champion and still have the tournament chart to prove it!)  I find joy in my family because our families here on earth are an extension of God's family that we were a part of before we came here to this mortal life.  Families are a gift from God but it seems especially in todays world, families are becoming more and more of a struggle and less of a beautiful source of joy.  Families, like individuals, are not perfect.  I know mine is not.  But there was a lot of love and unity in my family and we sure knew how to get together and have a good time!  Those times I was telling about when my family was all together, it really did feel like a little piece of heaven.  I know the love and unity in my family stemmed from my grandparents testimonies of Jesus Christ.  As we center our lives and family on His teachings there is greater effort within the family to be kind, patient, forgiving, and full of love which paves the way for happiness.

Too bad those precious moments of happiness that personally I feel in my family and that you feel in your own times of happiness do not last all day long throughout our entire time in this life!  Too bad our families can sometimes be really rotten and full of heartache or drama.  If there is a God and He wants us to be happy why doesn't He just make our lives perfect?? 

Well when you feel down, when your mad at your circumstances in life, or the particular events of the day or week, there is a small little something you can do, right now, this second, that will change your level of happiness....SMILE!

It may be hard in the midst of trial but it is actually a proven fact that smiling will increase your happiness!  It's been proven smiling: Changes our mood, relieves stress, releases endorphins and natural pain killers, makes you look younger and more confident and helps you stay positive.  Smiling test:  Try to think of something negative without losing your smile!  If you are having trouble finding a reason to smile, think of the answer to the question I asked about what makes you happy!  Look around and focus on the positive.  Think of an embarrasing moment you had or a funny joke your friend or co worker told you last week.  Think of that one time the dog pushed your little brother down the stairs!!! See that one got me smiling! 

Not to mention smiling is 100% contagious!!  Here is an adorable poem written by a little girl:

One day I smiled at Heather,

And Heather smiled at Jim;

Jim smiled at Eric,

And Eric smiled at Kim;

Kim smiled at Geoffrey,

And Geoffrey smiled at Jon;

Jon then smiled at someone else,

And so that smile went on—

It went from door to door,

It went across the sea,

It travelled all around the world

And came back home to me!

Click on this link if you need a reason to smile!!  Everything this kid says is exactly what I'm tryin to tell YOU!
http://elitedaily.com/news/world/throughout-the-history-of-mankind-nobody-has-summed-up-life-as-well-as-this-kid-just-did-video/

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