Ann

If you are not happy with what you already have, how can you expect to become happy by getting more? Instead of expecting that happiness will come to you from the outside, choose to send it out from the inside.

If you've been waiting for some thing or event or condition before choosing to be happy, there is no need to wait any longer. Go ahead, choose to be happy, and then you'll move more effectively toward whatever you desire.

Having the good and valuable things you desire is not a cause of happiness. It is an expression of happiness.

Happiness is not yours when you chase it or put conditions on it. Happiness is yours when you allow it.

Choose right now to allow it. Choose to be happy and genuinely thankful about who you are, what you're doing, what you have and where you're going.

And right away, that positive attitude on the inside will begin to build and improve the factors on the outside. Allow happiness, and allow your life to run in a positive, fulfilling direction.

-- Ralph Marston

Gabe

"One way to increase joy is to anticipate the pleasure coming your way. When you anticipate something beautiful, you are more likely to see it as beautiful. And the joy of it will be more galvanizing, more exiting, more real.
Judaism has a principle called Chitzonit mi'orrer pi'nimiut - 'the external awakens the internal.' This means it is possible to develop an emotional state by acting as if you're already in that state.
Happiness is not a happening. Happiness is a state of mind. You can have everything in the world and still be miserable. Or you can have relatively little and feel unbounded joy."
~ Rabbi Noah Weinberg

Grimnar

This hits home with me today. I really needed to read it.