Happiness is not a person, place, or thing. It’s a feeling. Walt Disney World is called the happiest place on earth, and when you’re there, you feel happy. Is it that Walt Disney World has some magical powers that cast happiness upon anyone who enters the coveted gates? Maybe, but I think it’s caused mainly by ourselves.

We are all magnets pulling energy and experiences into us, and when we’re at Walt Disney World (or any other place that makes us happy), the experience, the visual look, and the ability to relax create a chemical reaction in the brain entirely, and we feel good. We feel happy. We come home, and the weight of the world sets back on our shoulders, welcoming us back with vigor. The reminders, pressure, and real-life stress attack our peace and the happiness we felt on that vacation.

How often do you hear people saying they want to retire to some warm location and play golf, ride around on a golf cart, and read all the books they want? That was never me. I used to say I wanted to retire so that I could work, meaning write my books, blogs, and other business adventures. I wanted an opportunity to be free. But that’s me. You do you.

People say that stuff because they want to feel happy, and working at the same job day in and day out and coming home to the same laundry or dealing with obligations that wear us down can rob us of happiness. But only if we let it.

Hope allows us to visualize a better future. If you’re sick, you hope you get better. If you’re struggling financially, you hope things turn around. You get the picture. But that hope takes us away from the present moment and keeps us living in the future, where things are going to be so much better. It’s like we’re putting our happiness on layaway and only paying a small amount of attention to that each week when we allow ourselves to live in the present moment, doing something that helps us feel joy.  When we go on a vacation and get away, we pay off the layaway in total, but then we come home, and the cycle starts again.

Who me? You mean I can read for 15 minutes, paint that painting, play a video game, or whatever pays off that happiness layaway? Yes, you can, and you need to.

Using the example of Walt Disney World, ask yourself, what is it about that place that makes me feel so good? For me, when I think of Disney, it makes me feel happiness and joy because it gets me out of my head and allows me to focus on the beautiful experience. Disney makes it easy to be happy. So, how can we do that in our homes, or life? Maybe it’s as simple as creating a garden in your yard that you tend to, removing weeds, and cultivating it with plant food and appreciation. You can make it look beautiful so that each time you see it, you feel something good that takes you out of your head and back to feeling that joy you did at Disney. I’m using “garden” because Walt Disney parks have incredible manicured gardens.

There’s no set formula for happiness. It’s different for each of us. What’s important is finding out what makes you happy and doing that. It’s time we put ourselves ahead of an obligation to what other people want from us if it interferes with what makes us happy. Just do what makes you happy. Always question what you’re doing and if it’s what you want. That will be a guide to your happiness.

Thank you for reading this, and I hope you got something good out of this.

To feeling happy,

Francesca