Finding happiness in our everyday lives

What makes you happy?

If you watch travel shows or follow friends on Facebook, you’ll see lots of alluring images that might appear to be the keys to happiness: A beach house? A cruise every other month? Shopping sprees or new snow machines? You might have friends who spend a lot of money on their entertainment. But really, where does one truly find happiness?

Happiness is so much more than your “trappings.” It is partly in deciding that you will love where you are and what you are doing at every turn in life. Elder Joseph B Wirthlin calls it, “Come what may, and love it!”

I propose that the very best way to be happy is to be happy every day. As I have watched my mother over the years, I have observed that she finds happiness in doing simple things that bring her joy: researching family histories for her own and others’ families; sewing or crocheting beautiful things for her grandchildren; having a conversation with a child; keeping up a family tradition of Sunday dinners; Providing cabins for a yearly family reunion. What about the year she broke her pelvis? While she recovered in a recliner for three months, she contentedly crocheted beautiful blankets for her great-grandbabies. What about while she lived through 115-degree summers? She stays in her air-conditioned home during the day and walks or works in the garden in the early morning hours.

One part of every-day happiness we can all enjoy is exercise. Exercise is more important for your mental health than money, concludes research from Yale and Oxford universities. The scientists studied 1.2 million Americans. They published in The Lancet that “while those who exercised regularly tended to feel bad for 35 days a year, nonactive participants felt bad for 18 days more, on average. Also, the researchers found that physically active people feel just as good as those who don’t do sports but who earn about $25,000 more a year” (Business Insider, Feb 11, 2020). Exercise is something we can do every day to enhance our every-day happiness.

Daily gratitude enhances our recognition of happiness. Practicing gratitude doesn’t have to be elaborate. After finding myself at night either too tired to write in a gratitude journal or wondering where I last set it (and I’m a journaling kind of person), I have found my best way to practice gratitude is to review what I’m thankful for with God every evening before I go to sleep and every morning after I wake up. Usually, I lay in bed and enjoy opening and closing my day by sharing what I’m thankful for.

Being warmed by the spirit of God is one of the key elements of happiness I have enjoyed throughout my life. That reassuring awareness that God is close and all is well is sublime. Elder Lawrence Colbridge explains this very well in the October 2020 Ensign magazine:

“The best of all human conditions is not wealth, fame, prestige, good health, the honors of men, or security. The best of all human conditions is to be endowed with heavenly power. It is to be born again, to have the gift and companionship of the Holy Ghost, which is the source of knowledge, revelation, strength, clarity, love, joy, peace, hope, confidence, faith, and almost every other good thing.” Jesus promised, “the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, … shall teach you all things” (John 14:26).

In our beautiful Alaskan valley, there are so many ways to experience happiness. There are hundreds of hiking trails, rivers, campsites, berries, wildlife, birds, sea life, fish, and snow sporting opportunities. There are concerts, bands, plays, dance classes and recitals. We have crafting and art opportunities. You are only limited by your imagination and your willingness to try something new. Granted, you will need to layer-up in warm clothing, hats and scarves to be outside for a while, but warm clothing today is soft, stretchy, washable, and abundant.

I challenge you to stop looking “out there” for your happiness. Rather, find it here, today, and every day. Happiness is closer than you think.

Beth Wright loves writing, music, and adventuring with her husband Kerry and their children and grandchildren. She is thankful today for warm clothes, piano scales, and family love. She is very happy to be a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.