Happiness!

In the last several months it seems the shelves of the local bookstores are full of books on happiness. Many titles promise to teach us how, and where to find happiness.
What does that word mean to you? What are your thoughts and feelings when you hear that word?
Is it "warm and fuzzy" feelings? Visions of blue sky? Fields of daisies? Lot's of money? Lots of sex?
It seems that we all have a different idea of what happiness is, everyone is searching and few can say they are "happy"
I have heard people say it doesn't exist, that we create our own happiness... and I guess everyone will have an opinion and or a thought.
Well, what makes you happy?
We can look at the basics.
1. Health. If you are in poor health, can you really do anything? What is good health?
2. Shelter. You need shelter from the elements. You need to be safe.
3. Food. We all need to eat to stay alive.
4. Family and friends. We are social animals.

Now, in our search for happiness...............
1. Health. We can have some diagnosis here or there. But as long as we take care of ourselves we are OK. It should not define us.
2. Shelter. How much square footage do we need? Do we need the bigger house?
3. Food. We can have food from the different food groups. We don't need to eat at the fanciest restaurants as long as we eat nutritionally.
4. Friends and family. Good, healthy relationships with "real" people. It doesn't matter what they drive, how much they make a year. It's who they are as people.

Guess where you find happiness? In your self. You make decisions in your thinking. You can talk yourself into being happy and you can also talk yourself into being unhappy. It is up to you. Read the books if you like but, you have to do the work for yourself. We all have an internal dialogue with ourselves. We can either choose happiness or unhappiness.