What makes you happy?

Happiness is easier to achieve than you realize. You can feel happy in the simplest of experiences. Finding and matching long lost socks can make you happy. Yet when you struggle emotionally, you lose sight of what makes you happy.  And you begin to long for that happy feeling. You start to look for it in all the wrong places--relationships, a new car, a new pet. You reach for anything that might make you happy. Surprise! Those things do not actually make you happy. Sure, they initially give you the high of feeling happy or even blissful, but it eventually wears off as the newness wears off. Happiness comes from a place of contentment within you. It does not take much to make you happy when you feel content. Cultivate a feeling of contentment. Develop the ability to sit in quiet with your thoughts and feelings. Be peaceful. Be alone with yourself. Close your eyes and go within. Stop the chatter. Stop the running around and being too busy. Let go of distraction. Settle in quietly with yourself.  Contentment brings happiness.