Happiness.

This is a blog post I have been wanting to write for the past couple of weeks, but I never felt I was quite ready until now.  Happiness is a big part of life. Essentially, it is what we as humans all strive for. If your level of happiness is low, you're going to feel incomplete and you're not going to enjoy life. 

With the stresses of life however, happiness can be a scarce feeling. However, I have determined that happiness is achievable if you have a positive attitude. A year ago, I was really struggling with this concept. I was a "negative nancy" and couldn't figure out why I wasn't happy. I had everything I always wanted: a good group of friends, an amazing boyfriend, a good family, and a good life. So why wasn't I happy?

My negative attitude affected my happiness. I remember my summer job was stressing me out because I was working a lot and it was keeping me from my friends and boyfriend. I let this affect me and bring me down. This habit continued throughout my fall semester of college. However, I made a great change in the following semester. My spring semester was a crazy mess of papers, tests, projects, and activities. Because I was so busy, I realized I had no choice but to just accept it. I found that my attitude was bringing me down.

If I kept telling myself "this sucks so bad, I hate this," then it was going to suck. Instead, I started telling myself "this isn't the ideal situation, but it is what it is. I need to make the most of this." This simple attitude change made the biggest difference in my life. I am at a point in my life where I am the happiest I have ever been. And guess what? I am just as busy and sometimes stressed as before. But I choose to accept it and move forward.

A really good way to make sure you stay positive is to surround yourself with positive and happy people. Negative people are only going to drag you down with them. A little thing I like to do to keep myself in line is leave little positive notes. As a part of my journey last summer, I took post-it notes and wrote quotes on them about happiness and positive things. I had them at my desk as I constant reminder. Another way to do this is to set your desktop and/or phone background to a positive quote. My desktop background is currently a quote from Oprah Winfrey that says "Where there is no struggle, there is no strength," This reminds me that the hard times only make me a stronger person.

Also, the lock screen on my phone says "think happy thoughts." By doing this, you will constantly be reminded to be positive and be happy. 

I will end this post with a few of these quotes so that maybe they can help you as well. :)