A Happy Soul

I love blogging.  I mean, I REALLY love blogging.  Without sounding silly, it's very cleansing and freeing for me.  Over the years, my entries have become fewer and fewer until they've stopped altogether, and that makes me a little sad.  Because I love blogging.

So I thought maybe I needed a different direction, and I figured I could blog about positive things going on in the world and in my community.  The idea never really took off, though, and it fizzled faster than sparkler on the 4th of July.

Several days ago, while walking through the store, my mom turned to me and asked, "This is a strange question in the middle of Target, but...are you happy?"

This plunged me into serious introspection as I tried to decide which package of mechanical pencils to buy.  I thought about the question, and replied, "Well, I'm not unhappy."  And that's true.  I'm not unhappy.  But over the last few months, I've laughed less, been overwhelmed more, and let little things pile up on my shoulders until I've been burdened and weighed down.

Realizing this about myself, I'm on a quest to find and choose happiness every day, and feed my soul with good things.  When I'm taking good care of myself, I can take good care of others around me.

Here's some amazing inspiration from Elder Holland: The Quest for Happiness

I wish to comment on Nephi’s phrase about living “after the manner of happiness” (2 Nephi 5:27). It suggests a quest for happiness, not necessarily happiness itself.

I do not think God in his glory or the angels of heaven or the prophets on earth intend to make us happy all the time, every day in every way, given the testing and trial this earthly realm is intended to provide. As President James E. Faust (1920–2007) once phrased it: “Happiness is not given to us in a package that we can just open up and consume. Nobody is ever happy 24 hours a day, seven days a week.”1 But my reassurance to you today is that in God’s plan we can do very much to find the happiness we do desire. We can take certain steps, we can form certain habits, we can do certain things that God and history tell us lead to happiness.

In short, your best chance for being happy is to do the things that happy people do. Live the way happy people live. Walk the path that happy people walk. If you do, your chance to find joy in unexpected moments, to find peace in unexpected places, to find the help of angels when you didn’t even know they knew you existed, improves exponentially. Here are at least a few ideas about how one might live “after the manner of happiness.”

He then gives a list of 4 things that will contribute to happiness, and I wasn't expecting #4.  (You'll have to read it yourself to find out!)

I can say that in the last week, I have felt happier.  I've laughed a little bit, and made a big change to our homeschooling schedule that I think will help.  I'll share that next time.