This Wellness Wednesday post is from the mind of Jessica, the visionary behind Raw Food Nation:

hap-pi-ness [hap-ee-nis] noun
1.     the quality or state of being happy.
2.     good fortune; pleasure; contentment; joy.

What will it take to make you happy? If someone were to ask you right now, “{insert your name here}, I want you to be happy, what will that take?” How would you answer? Would you have an answer? Would it come quickly or would you have to get back to that person later, after carefully thinking about the question.  We are all on individual paths of enlightenment as we unfold the mysteries of this life, as we experience the ups, the downs, and everything in between. But when it comes to happiness, to true bliss and contentment, when it comes to that inner protected light in which no man or thing can extinguish, how do we obtain that?

I was enjoying a warm summer day with a good friend, under a shaded tree laying on a blanket, discussing life, literature and everything in between, when she recommended that I read the book Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. I had initially thought this book was about dieting given its location in the bookstore and proximity to other nutrition/lifestyle books. But little did I know that within the pages of this masterpiece was the definition of happiness that agreed with me the most, so clearly articulated and written with good choice of words. I would like to share this definition with you, which to me goes far beyond the dictionary definition above, and makes more sense too.

“…people universally tend to think that happiness is a stroke of luck, something that will maybe descend upon you like fine weather if you are fortunate enough. But that’s not how happiness works. Happiness is the consequence of personal effort. You fight for it, strive for it, insist upon it, and sometimes even travel around the world looking for it. You have to participate relentlessly in the manifestations of your own blessings. And once you have achieved a state of happiness, you must never become lax about maintaining it, you must make a mighty effort to keep swimming upward into that happiness forever, to stay afloat on top of it. If you don’t, you will leak away your innate contentment. It’s easy enough to pray [to whomever you choose] when you’re in distress; but continuing to pray even when your crisis has passed is like a sealing process, helping your soul hold tight to its good attainments.”

Suddenly the notion of happiness is much more than awaiting for something or someone to fall upon you, directly into your path. And it’s also something that you must not only work to obtain, but also work to keep. Happiness becomes something that you can have in this lifetime, instead of spending a lifetime searching for it, it becomes obtainable and within reach. No longer being a stroke of luck, consider this: your happiness is your responsibility. Just as is your health and wellness, and just as it is your responsibility to rise each morning and carry out your mission on earth. So your daily “to do” list should read something like this: “take shower, prepare lunch, get presentation ready for meeting, work on obtaining/maintaining my happiness….” and so forth and so on.

I close with article with yet another excerpt from the book, on the same page nonetheless, “…all sorrow and trouble of this world is caused by unhappy people… The search for contentment is, therefore, not merely a self-preserving and self-benefiting act, but also a generous gift to the world. Cleaning out all your misery gets you out of the way. You cease being an obstacle, not only to yourself but to anyone else. Only then are you free to serve and enjoy other people… When you set out in the world to help yourself, you inevitably end up helping everyone.”

And it is with these final words that I encourage everyone to get up, go out, and get happy!

After reading this article, feel free to comment below and let us know your personal definition of happiness for your life.