Is There a Short Cut to Happiness?

Is There a Short Cut to Happiness?

Wouldn’t it be great if there were a short cut to happiness? We’re busy trying to manifest things in our lives that we feel will bring us to that wonderful destination: happiness but we are missing something. We’re missing what we already have.

I believe the culprit for me is that incessant voice in my head cluttering that precious space with anxious thoughts and imaginary problems. Do you know what I mean?

In determining to find a way to deal with the voice in my head I discovered a simple short cut to happiness.

If I couldn’t silence the voice in my head, I thought, I would tell it what to say.

I told it to say “Thank You.”

Not thank you for this or thank you for that. Just “Thank you”. I noticed there was no need to bring to mind a list of things for which I was grateful. My brain, which is obligated to pay attention to any thought I have and to automatically associate that thought with similar thoughts, did the work for me.

Our brains have unparalleled skill at sifting through our experiences to produce reams of evidence as to why we should be thinking the thoughts we are thinking. Once we have a thought we have a feeling to match it and our brains will then give us more reasons why we should feel that way. Doing this simple exercise shows us that we have many reasons to be grateful.

Thinking grateful thoughts makes us feel grateful.

And feeling grateful makes us happy!

Try it for yourself.

Say “Thank you!” when the holidays get crazy, when the line-ups in the malls or at the post office make you want to scream. Interrupt your thoughts with “Thank you!” when you’re frustrated, sad or when you are falling into habitual worry thought patterns. Say “Thank you!” when your mind starts to wander down melancholy lane.

Can you make a habit of this and if you do will you be a happier person? What do you think; gratitude and happiness harnessed by two small but mighty words; Thank you.

How do you get yourself into a feeling of gratitude? Do you find that you’re happier when you are focused on things for which you are grateful?

Photo credit: h080

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About The Author


I have always loved writing and community building. I’ve written a book about healing and happiness, The Happy Place, as well as a Community Building book, Sounding the Drum: Community Building in the Digital Age,both available at any Amazon store. I’ve been through life changes that I thought were the end of my world, but I’m still here. You never know what will happen next. Isn’t that what makes life interesting?