Happiness is a choice. When a person wakes up in the morning they can say to themselves, am I going to be happy, or am I going to be sad today? There are always going to be hard aspects in life. But it is how you choose to react that defines you. If you are working all of the time, taking eighteen credits, feel like you have no time to yourself. You could either victimize yourself. Say why me? Or you could see the positive side, I am making money so that I can study abroad, I’m taking all of these classes so that I can graduate early, etc. Because you will be doing the job and going to classes no matter what, its your attitude that you can control. If you make a positive choice, you will enjoy your day so much more.

Surround yourself with positive people. Sometimes it is necessary to cut people out of your life. Toxic, negative friends don’t need to be in your life considering there are so many positive people out there. You just have to find them! Negative people suck the energy out of you. Have friends who build you up. If you give your friends positive encouragement and energy, you should expect the same in return. Find people who will give you that respect of treating you positively.

Even if you don’t have any positive friend's, it’s better to be alone than with negative ones. If you are lacking in the good friend department, find another way to be influenced by people with positive energy. Read books by influential authors, watch YouTube videos of people who give off happy vibes to their viewers. There is always a way to have a good, positive companionship.

Writing in a journal every day of what you are grateful for can put your problems in perspective. Maybe you had a bad day and nothing seemed to go right. There are still aspects of your day, maybe small, that still you felt grateful for. The line for coffee was shorter than usual, or you didn’t oversleep your alarm for once. Little parts of your day that you might not normally think about but could put your whole day into perspective. Big things don’t always have to go right for you to be happy. The little things matter too.

Meditation is so good for happiness. It has been scientifically proven that meditation can make you feel happier and healthier. It has been shown that meditation can release happy chemicals in your body like endorphins. Mediation gives you a few minutes to yourself to focus on your own wellbeing and happiness.

Another way to get those feel good chemicals is with hugging people. Now I am in no way a hugger. But sometimes hugging is the best medicine. When I have a hard day, and my mom gives me one of her bear hugs, I feel like all of my problems go away for a bit.

My last piece of advice for happiness is to realize the only person or thing that can make you happy is you. You can not rely on others for happiness or peace. It’s something you, yourself, are going to have to fight for everyday.