Recently, as I scrolled through my Facebook and Twitter feeds, I noticed a similar trend: Sadness and an honest lack of happy articles. This immediately caught my eye, and not in the way you may think. I wasn’t connecting to these articles because I related to them; I connected with them because I knew that someone out there was, and that is just not OK. Which made me think about why people aren’t spreading happiness, and what the word happiness actually means.

Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines this word as “a state of well-being and contentment.” I would tend to agree, because in all honesty, who can refute the dictionary? But what it doesn’t explain is how you get to that state. What does it take to be happy or content? I dove into this a little bit and tried to uncover what the true meaning of happiness is.

In the case of some friends, they found happiness in the sports that they played. They felt content when they scored their first goal or hit their first home run. Getting a first place in the competition made them feel as though they had reached that “state of well-being.” This still didn’t seem to me like it could be the root cause. So naturally, I decided to be a little more detective-like.

I started pondering to myself what caused me to be happy. The first things that came to mind were family, friends, and my faith. All of these things make me feel that contentment that the dictionary talks about. I played sports and had artistic outlets, but the things that brought me the most happiness were those things that were free. Taylor Swift even says that “the best people in life are free.” Who knew she had so much knowledge?

For a lot of people, happiness could mean wealth, power, or prestige. Which often triggers the question, can money make you happy? For some people the answer might be yes, but in my own case I feel as though money could never replace the simple happiness I get from waking up to my house full of family, or sending a good luck text to my best friend on her first day at work. Nothing ever compared to the content I felt after a good long talk with God. My happiness was free, and all there for me to grab.

Now that I had an idea of what made me feel so much joy and understanding that some people out there are missing that, I could put it into action to stop the sadness. Simple things could brighten someone’s day and show them that there are some free and easy ways to be happy. From a smile in the grocery store to telling a stranger that you like their outfit, you could be showing someone just how happy they can really be. So shout your happiness from the rooftops, spread a warm smile, because in the end we all just need a little happiness.

Join my effort to bring a little happiness into someone’s life by “spreading some happy.” We all can do it. It only takes a few moments of your day. Let’s come together and rid ourselves of sadness. It’s time to get happy!