Many have said that happiness is our most desired quality and state of being.  When we are happy, we feel pleasurable emotions and states of mind – carefree, warm, active, loving, devil-may-care, adventurous – or secure and confident – or more powerful than anyone who would try to harm us!  When we’re happy, we feel at home in our skin and our world, or we are busting out of them with ambition and anticipation for the future. We take joy in our own endeavors and also in helping others achieve something they want.

Thinking about this, and thinking about how many countries in the world repress individual initiative and compel or coerce behavior and actions, and dictate where you can live and where you can go, I realized that the freedom to seek and find happiness is a precious human right.

But I’m not the first to say this, not by a long shot! The farseeing authors of the United States’ founding documents enshrined this beautiful idea in the U.S. Declaration of Independence:  “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”  Even today it seems amazing and wonderful to realize that such a basic freedom-promoting idea was stated as one of the key purposes for the founding of a nation.

Bringing this back down to the personal level, this is not to say that it is anyone ELSE’s job to make us happy, but that each human being, no matter where he or she is born or lives, has the inborn right to be left alone to discover and realize his and her own happiness.  Even those living under a tyranny realize this innately, because it IS part of them at the deepest level.

So life is most enjoyable when we have the reward of pleasure, joy and happiness – and are not being FORCED to do something, or live a life, that we do not desire.

At times on our journey through life, sometimes for extended periods, our inner spark may flicker and seem to dim down, and we lose our belief and feeling we can do whatever we wish, conquer the world, and be happy.  While people are often told that being depressed is a mental or emotional illness, common sense and ability to think tell us that life circumstances are often changing, often unexpectedly or frequently, and we change.  An accident or loss can’t always be prevented.  It is rational to reject that circumstance and to fight back against it.  To find we can’t change it back can deflate one’s mood.  But it is very true that we all contain within us the inner resources and ability to come back up.  The ability to bring ourselves back up from bad things which happen lies within us – not within a bottle.

And there are very practical things we can do to help us recover.

The first step toward doing so is the decision to do it.  A firm decision.  You know, you can actually make a positive decision even when you are feeling down.  You may not feel like it, but you can! Decisions are powerful energizers.

Then put your attention and focus on doing the things in life that interest you – things that you like or love or consider worthwhile.  Each of us can be a positive and inspiring spirit in our own world, circle, family, group.  It takes getting back into action.  And that action itself – even if you are initially just going through the motions – will boost you up and help you rise above it.  You have to keep at it, to persist. Keep going through the motions, and it will work.

You contain within you all that makes you a unique, powerful and happy individual.  Sometimes you have to work hard to get it to resurface – but it is always there.

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Your life and fire deserve to burn bright in the world.  Shine on!