What makes you happy?

So what is happiness? It’s pretty hard to find, if we don’t know what it actually means for us. It’s like trying to find the ideal man but not having any criteria – and that’s hard at the best of times! So the first thing to do is to define it for you.

I find happiness always comes back to my values. If the way I'm living is in alignment with my core values, then I am generally happy. If things aren’t, look out! Here's an example. If my health isn’t quite on form, happiness can become pretty elusive for me. That's because health and wellbeing is one of my core values. What are you core values? Does the way you go about your daily life align with your core values?

Happiness has different levels and being content is the first level. It is unrealistic to expect to be deliriously happy the whole time. The beautiful thing is that these different levels make the contrasts of happiness even more apparent, rather like the seasons. If we didn’t have cold winters, we would not enjoy the first days of Spring so intently.

Happiness and fun are closely connected. I try to do one thing every day that has some element of fun for me around it. It might be a beach walk, a coffee catch up with a friend, writing a blog etc. Last weekend my husband and I went about our days looking for an intentionally fun focus. Taking our puppy for her first beach walk and watching her attempting to body surf in the waves was the most I had laughed in a long time. We went for a drive up the coast and enjoyed the best of New Zealand nature and food. It doesn’t have to be big stuff, just keep a positive outlook and happiness can be found.

Now go out and grab hold of those things that make you happy!