I would rather sit in silence for days than let my hurtful word echo on in someone’s heart forever.

I stopped worrying, then happiness showed up

?

The formula for creating your own happiness is simple, right?

Do?things that make you happy,?avoid negative thoughts?and stress, and voilà!

Happiness appears like a sunbeam from within, shining all around you.

But that’s not at all how it happens—you and I both know that.

Creating your own happiness does not happen overnight.

You don’t strike a yoga pose or two, meditate for a month or a year,

write mantras on Post-it notes all over your home and poof, happiness arrives to knock on your front door !

There is no doorbell-ringing happiness.

Happiness is silence; it is stillness.

How to create your own happiness

However, the enigma isn’t so enigmatic—we are a society?full of instant everything.

If whatever we desire?doesn’t happen immediately, many of us don’t want it.

Or maybe we want it, but we don’t want to wait for it, put in the effort or enjoy the process of reaping the benefits.

We want it now, dammit !

Look at how we live, from the convenience of food, entertainment and

quick-fix promises sold with the intention of giving you a flatter stomach, a wrinkle-free face,

more room in your closet, flawless eyebrows and slimmer thighs.

Without any effort, we have everything our hearts desire.

But most of the stuff we accrue are things we don’t even want.

Look around your home, look at your life. Is it the life your dreams are made of?

Or is it one that was sold to you?

?

Take the time to observe what’s around you.

Is it what makes you happy?

If not, how can you change it?

?

Take the time to be still.?

Ask yourself some serious questions about what you want out of life and who you want to be.

If you don’t look within, happiness will only be a mirage, a production of cinematic proportions.

Be mindful of what it is you long for, and be honest about it.

Reflection must be included in the process, period—there’s no way around it.

?

The sound of happiness

When I slowed down, things changed.

I asked myself hard questions, and I let time give me the answers.

I didn’t pressure myself—not like I used to, anyway.

I sat still and listened to myself and others breathe, and I listened to the universe breathe,

as if in unison with us all.

Because that is what the universe does.

It breathes with us, and it gives us breath.?

When I sat still, I could hear what I needed to hear.

I started to really notice things.

I stopped being a robot and became?human?again.

And I was both afraid and amused.

I finally realized that?this?was living.

Are you willing to be still, too?

To be mindful?

Are you willing to face the silence and hear happiness whisper all sorts of secrets in your ear?

Be ready, or?get?ready, because those secrets can help you maintain your true self and

push your levels of happiness higher than you ever thought possible.

Trust me, you want to sit still. You want to be quiet.

Because when you slow down and sit still and listen,

you too can begin to create your own happiness.