So you want to be happy?

My mom Pilita Corrales arrived from Australia recently and brought me three new books. I’m so excited to share them with you.

I’ve decided to first give you excerpts from Happiness in a Nutshell written by Andrew Matthews and published by Sea Shell Publishers PTY Ltd.

Andrew Matthews is also the author of the million-seller Being Happy and Making Friends, Get Faxed and Follow Your Heart.

Here is what he says:

• Usually, the best place to make a new start is where you are! Before changing your address, consider changing your thinking. When you change, your situation changes. It is law.

• We all fail. But it is not failing that hurts. What hurts is knowing that you didn’t give your best.

• Have the discipline to do little things you don’t like and you can spend your life doing the big things you do like.

• Happy people don’t just accept change, they embrace it. They are people who say: "Why would I want my next five years to be like my last five?"

•You get motivated by doing things, not thinking about them. Next time you are upset, remember it’s not so much people who make you angry, but your thoughts about them. Whatever thoughts are causing your pain, they are only thoughts. You can change a thought.

• Following your dream is no guarantee of an easy ride. Life usually becomes more challenging, but you embark on an outer journey which starts the inner journey. You have a chance to blossom to see who you really are.

• When we forgive ourselves, we stop criticizing other people.

• When your body hurts, pain reminds you to take a rest, or maybe to change your shoes or to find a better way. When your mind hurts, pain reminds you to quit worrying or to be more forgiving, or to think a different way. Pain is not your enemy. Pain is your friend.

• Courage is not the absence of fear–courage is acting in spite of fear. People who do nothing with their lives are just as scared as people who take major risks. It’s just that the first group gets scared over tiny things. Why not get scared over something significant?

• If we are honest with ourselves, we can list almost everything that’s ever happened to us and see how we helped create it.

• If there is something in your life you don’t want, stop worrying about it and stop talking about it. The energy you put into it keeps it alive. Withdraw your energy and it will likely go away.

• Your mission in life is not to be without problems. Your mission is to get excited.

• You give your best not because you need to impress people. You give your best because that’s the only way to enjoy your work.

• Doing what you love is not a recipe for an easier life. It is a recipe for an interesting life.

• Act as if every event has a purpose, and your life will have a purpose. Figure out why you needed an experience, conquer it. And you won’t need it again. Ultimately, you can only depend on your inner guidance–in other words, follow your heart.

These are just some of his views. They are so simple and yet so true. Sometimes we think great things have to occur in our lives for us to be content, for us to be happy, but it isn’t so. We have everything we need in us to be happy. We need not search for it elsewhere. It starts with us, within us.

Think about what Andrew Matthews said and reflect on them. Life already has many challenges. Let us make our lives simpler. Let us search deep within our hearts and we will realize that the power has always been within us. Know that and take your journey from there. We all deserve to be happy. Let us make it so.

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(E-mail me at babyjackster@yahoo.com)