Take a moment to clear your mind. Set aside all thoughts, desires, or wishes you presently feel. What is left when your mind becomes cleared? Do you feel that sense of longing within? That longing for something that seems to be so absent from our present society?

What do we all long for? I believe the answer to that question is, “true, genuine, happiness.” We each crave the feeling of laughing so hard our stomach’s ache or smiling so big our cheeks hurt. But, how do we find this when everywhere we turn seems to be plastered in negativity?

Look around you. When you turn on your TV screen, what do you see? When you open your Internet, what pops up? Seldom do we find what our soul is searching for in the midst of search engines or TV screens. So, where do we find what our heart so intensely needs?

In nineteen years I have begun to realize that happiness isn’t something found in things or the world around us. Happiness is something found within ourselves.

It is our duty to reach into the depths of our souls until we find happiness, because if we can’t find happiness within ourselves, how can we ever begin to distribute it to those around us?

Let's start a movement. The lady behind the counter serving food to you? Ask her how her day is going. The person walking a couple steps behind you as you approach the doorway? Hold the door open for them. The quiet one who seems to be too shy to talk to those around them? Begin a conversation with them.

Because maybe, just maybe, if we begin to spread the happiness within our souls to those surrounding us, our world will catch on. It starts today. It starts with a smile. It starts with a hug. It starts with a simple hello. It starts with us.