by Laurie Miles

Created on: April 25, 2009   Last Updated: April 28, 2009

I am happy every single day. It is a personal choice I make to get out of bed, put a smile on my face and greet the world. We all have the same option, but many choose a different path.

It is too easy to complain. There is always something that is not right with the world. You can always find a way to be negative. The fact is that it takes no more energy to be happy than to be sad, so why not smile. I am not delusional or living with my head in the clouds. I just prefer to look at my glass as half full instead of half empty. Life could always be worse. I don't have to think too hard or long to find something or someone worse off than I am.

I have food to eat, a roof over my head and love in my life. I am healthy. I have clothes to wear. I do not have a lot of money. By some standards I guess I would be considered rich. By others, quite poor. I don't define myself by the stuff I do or don't have.

We are in tough economic times. Unemployment is high, banks are failing and people are losing their houses. This present environment we are all in lends itself to depression and unhappiness. I do not trivialize these matters, but I do try to find the positive. We as a nation and as individuals have problems to solve. We can do it and move forward, if we want to make the changes necessary. I am stating the obvious. Choose to be happy.

Don't read the paper or watch the news if it causes you stress. The media loves to sell drama and all too often we fall for it. I am not suggesting you live in a bubble, but eliminate what makes you unhappy, if you can. Keeping your troubles in perspective can go a long way toward not letting them take you down.

Every day is another opportunity to make my life and the life of my daughter better. If I lived in pessimism and negativity I would be miserable constantly. I make happiness. I know that may sound odd, but that is how it starts. Its the easiest thing in the world to smile. Think of it as an exercise for your facial muscles. I can guarantee you will make yourself happy, simply by deciding to be a happy person.

The theory goes that if you do something for 30 days straight, it becomes a habit. So smile for 30 days. Get up every morning and simply smile. Do it before your feet touch the floor. Smile that you are alive. Smile because just as the phone can ring and give you bad news, it can also ring and give you good news. Smile your way through a cup of coffee and a hot shower.

I don't care how bad it seems, you can always find something to be happy about if you try. Be happy that the sun rose. Smile.

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