15 Ways to Give Your Happiness Meter a Boost

Being happy is a choice. We can choose to be happy or not. Joy, which is different than happiness, can be found through principled living. When we live a life of gratitude, high principles, faith, forgiveness, and service to others, we find the very joy we deserve.

The following suggestions are sure to upgrade your happiness meter:

• Accept yourself as you are today
• Live with simple abundance
• Forgive
• Love yourself into wholeness
• Honor Mother Earth
• Pray/meditate
• Remake your own world
• Live in harmony and balance
• Live a life of service to others
• Awaken your heart with gratitude
• Live every moment as if it were your last
• Take good care of yourself
• Love one another
• Be honest and truthful in all things
• Gratitude is a major step to a happy feeling

We have a right to be happy. Yet many of us actually feel a sense of guilt when we experience a ray of joy. We convince ourselves that because someone else we know and love isn't happy we shouldn't be either.

When we see others in pain, going hungry, homeless, or being abused we tell ourselves that the world is in a terrible state. Our government is going to the dogs, and we long for the "good old days." We hate being young yet we're afraid of growing old.

Worrying has become a way of life. We worry about getting fat, then we eat junk food to soothe our worried minds. We want to be in a relationship, but we can't trust one another. We want to be loved, yet we believe we are unlovable. When we're cold we are miserable and when we're hot we suffer. We want to be successful yet we walk in fear.

Do we have the right to be happy when so many others are in pain or going without? But then, what right do we have to be unhappy and sad when we have so much? Of course, we aren't going to be happy all the time. We have compassion for the misfortune of others. At times we will feel grief and sorrow. It's how we react to these conditions that cause us unhappiness.

Being happy is not a sin. In fact it's the other way around. You cannot be grateful for what you are, who you are, and what you have if happiness doesn't exist within. Happiness spreads joy. When we are truly happy, we tend to light up and even glow which affects others. A smile is healing, contagious and healthy.

The bible tells us "Man is, that he might have joy...and that he might have it more abundantly." Just think...not only is it ok to be happy...we are supposed to be happy. I like that.

Being happy is one of our basic human desires and it empowers us . It even changes the vibrations around us and empowers others as well. And that is one reason we are drawn to happy people. If we spend too much time with those who are negative and complaining all the time, before long our positive energy is "sucked" right out of us. When that happens, we are physically tired and mentally drained.

We are more vulnerable to sickness, discouragement, unhappiness and we lose much needed energy. We may even find ourselves crying for no reason (so we think) or getting angry. Sometimes we go so far as to take our anger out on a loved one. That isn't fair to them or to you. So it's important to socialize with healthy-minded, positive people with a good attitude.

Always remind yourself that happiness is your right. The more you think about this the happier you will be. Chant these words out loud "Happiness is my right." Sing those words and repeat them over and over again, throughout the day as often as you can.

Go to the extreme. Get in a comfortable position, or sit in a yoga pose and meditate. As you chant the words "Happiness is my right ", direct those feelings of happiness into every part of your body, especially the heart and the head. Breathe deeply before chanting which will help to distribute and channel confirming vibrations.

And now I'm going to lay it on the line so take a deep breath and try not to be mad at me. When we are unhappy in our life, it is a selfish thing. We are being ungrateful and even self-indulgent . An example would be to pretend that you are a child again. You get very angry and display unhappiness because you didn't get your way. (Oops - I think I know what that feels like.) You may even have a temper tantrum. Do you see the selfishness in this action?

We always try to justify our temper and anger . We are out-of-control and there's a darn good reason for it.

You may be thinking, "well, what does this author know about my life...what I've been through and how hard it is to be happy? " Well, I know how hard it can be. My beautiful son, Todd, was taken quite unexpectedly from me when cancer invaded his strong, perfect body. He was only 42 and the single father of 4 little children whom he adored.

I will forever remember driving to the hospital in the middle of the night, thinking that I was called to come and support Todd during a chemo treatment. It never entered my mind that I would be lead to a room where my son would be lying in a bed, still dressed in his "Laker" shirt and shorts, lifeless...gone. I wanted to scream, I wanted to vent my anger, I wanted to bring my son back. His beautiful green eyes were open but he didn't see me, his mother. In that moment I was changed forever.

We all live with unimaginable pain and sorrow at one time or another. The key to happiness lies in how we eventually deal with the outcome. Experiences like this can either shatter and destroy us for the rest of our life, or we can, after a time, choose to become a stronger, more determined and loving individuals.

If happiness is your right, and it certainly is, claim it and claim it now. Why wait until tomorrow? What if tomorrow never comes? If you need to change your thinking, then do it. But do it now. Make a choice to be happy.

Find happiness in everything you do. It can be found in the simplest action. Happiness is housed in gratitude. You might say that happiness is the heart of gratitude. Avoid being judgemental. Not only with others, but with yourself.

I challenge you to begin now. It's a beautiful and full-filling journey and one that you deserve.