I would like to start by saying where happiness will never be found.
Happiness can´t be found in the future or in the past. Focusing on the past can make us feel nostalgic, angry or sad. Focusing on the future can make us feel worried. If you focus on enjoying the present moment, you will be truly happy. If you place happiness in the future, you will be chasing it all your life. If you place happiness in the past, you will miss the joy of the present moment.

Happiness doesn´t happen when you fulfill your goals or when you get new things. The reason why is that you will never stop having new goals. And you will probably always want new things. Life is made of little everyday achievements. Treasure those moments instead on focusing too much on your new to-do list.

Happiness will not happen when you are done solving your problems. That's because a problem is a situation that must be solved, just like a goal. In either one of them, you have to work on something to achieve a desirable result. That will never stop, there will always be situations in our lives that need to be solved.

A lot of people think that they must deserve it in order to feel happy, but the truth is that you can be the meanest, nastiest person on earth, and you can still chose to be happy. Some people even feel guilty about being happy.

It is OK to be happy, even if everything around you looks awful. You cannot be sad enough or angry enough to compensate for the overall sadness and anger in the world.
Choose to be happy even if you are facing difficulties, then with that mental shift, life will try to bring you happy experiences.

Don´t be afraid to be happy. You will not be punished for it. You can be as happy as you wish, and that is OK.

You don´t need a reason to be happy. You may be going through a hard time, but by being unhappy you are not making it any better.

I remember when I was 12 and my grandfather died of natural causes. I cried a lot, but at his funeral I was feeling fine. Then I realized that everyone around me looked depressed. That made me feel awkward and out of place. Therefore, I decided to try to cry to fit in, but I couldn´t. All I could do was fake this sorrow, because I thought that was expected of me. I felt a little guilty for not feeling sad at the moment while everybody else was crying.

How many times you are going through hard times, but deep inside you are feeling fine. Then, when you realize that being happy is not what´s expected of you, you decide to force yourself to feel sad or angry. You don´t want to disappoint people around you, you don't want people to think you are a little strange by being happy when you should be depressed. So, if you want to put a sad face to fit in, that´s OK, just try to keep your spirits up deep inside your heart.

If on the other hand you are actually sad. Start focusing on the good things around you, create happy thoughts, and that will trigger a good mood.

Happiness doesn´t just happen, happiness is decided upon. Happy events bring happy thoughts, but you can choose to have happy thoughts regardless of the circumstances. You can be in the best place on earth, in the best event ever and you can still feel miserable at the time.

Happiness doesn´t depend on others. If you do that, you will make miserable everyone around you. You have to be happy with them, without them or despite of them. Happiness is not around you, it´s inside of you.