The pursuit of happiness, something we all are chasing after in life, trying to find something, or someone, that can be joy, excitement, and pleasure into your lives. We spend our lives telling ourselves that once we have the newest iPhone, get that promotion, reach a certain popularity level, make X amount of money, get married and have kids running around our white picket fence then we will be happy.

Though, the chase never ends. The things we thought would bring us joy were not as fulfilling as we had anticipated or someone else has something that makes them look way happier than you are. As long we continue to look for things and people outside ourselves for happiness we will ever know true joy.

To find true happiness we need to stop looking outwards and turning in towards ourselves. We all have heard the glass half full analogy before but few of us realize just how powerful this analogy truly is. Happiness comes we you are able to train your mind to automatically find the positive side of things and focus less on the negative.

If your brain always went to the negative side of a situation nothing in life will ever be fulfilling enough for you. If you are able to steer your mind away from these thoughts and more towards making the best out of things life will start seeming less disappointing.

While thoughts can be helpful in your inner pursuit of happiness getting to know yourself is also an important part. Sit with yourself and really think about your morals, values, interests, and passions. Some of these things will be external but try to keep them simple such as reading in a cozy nook, a child’s laugh, or crazy family get-togethers.

When the little things a person experiences in a day can be appreciated and make you feel wholesome achieving happiness is more obtainable on those rough days than thinking that obtaining something you don’t have is going to make everything better.

It is sad to see how our world has been changed to think that it’s the things we have, the accomplishments we make, or that having certain people in our lives is whats going to make us instantaneously happy. All that we need to be happy we can find within ourselves. All we need is the right frame of thought and a grateful heart.