{"id":1674,"date":"2011-05-10T00:12:15","date_gmt":"2011-05-10T04:12:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/inspirationreport\/?p=1674"},"modified":"2011-05-11T14:35:59","modified_gmt":"2011-05-11T18:35:59","slug":"what-makes-you-happy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2011\/05\/what-makes-you-happy.html","title":{"rendered":"What Makes You Happy?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>&#8220;Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens \/ Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens \/ Brown paper packages tied up with strings \/ These are a few of my favorite things&#8221; &#8211; Oscar Hammerstein II, &#8216;The Sound of Music&#8217;<\/em><\/p>\n<p>This week, I stumbled upon the theme of <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/inspirationreport\/2011\/05\/joel-osteen-on-habitual-happiness-2.html\">happiness<\/a>. It all started when I realized that people saw me as a <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/inspirationreport\/2011\/05\/joel-osteen-on-habitual-happiness-2.html\">happy person<\/a>. And I kinda wanna keep that going.<\/p>\n<p>I mentioned that I <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/inspirationreport\/2011\/05\/joel-osteen-on-habitual-happiness-2.html\">seek out happy things<\/a>. I make a point everyday to do or simply be near something that makes me happy. So, what makes me happy? Like the song goes, I just think of my favorite things&#8230;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Making my mother laugh<\/li>\n<li>A long walk through the city on a sunny day<\/li>\n<li>Making pasta from scratch<\/li>\n<li>My quirky little apartment<\/li>\n<li>Music<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I&#8217;m starting to beam just writing these down. And there&#8217;s a lot more. Don&#8217;t get me started on big hairy dogs, tugboats and a good book on a stormy night.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s important to know what makes you happy, and I wonder how many people really stop to contemplate the simple things that can be a part of their everyday lives.<\/p>\n<p>Now, I should add that happiness is the outward manifestation of inner joy. You can fill up your life with lots of stuff, but if you&#8217;re not internally okay with yourself, then there&#8217;s but so much a new car can ever do for you. But that&#8217;s for another blog.<\/p>\n<p>So I ask you, what makes you happy? I&#8217;m not talking deliriously happy, like skipping down the street, but just a general feeling of contentment with the world around you. Think about it and post your answers here. I&#8217;ll collect these thoughts and write a <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/inspirationreport\/2011\/05\/a-few-of-your-favorite-things.html\">reflection<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><em>For more:<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/Health\/Healthy-Living\/Fill-Up-on-Happiness.aspx\">How to Kick-Start Your Pursuit of Happiness<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/Holistic-Living\/Personal-Growth\/7-Tips-for-Finding-Happiness.aspx\">7 Tips for Finding Happiness <\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/Holistic-Living\/2009\/07\/Joy-Quotes.aspx\">Uplifting Quotes about Joy<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens \/ Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens \/ Brown paper packages tied up with strings \/ These are a few of my favorite things&#8221; &#8211; Oscar Hammerstein II, &#8216;The Sound of Music&#8217; This week, I stumbled upon the theme of happiness. It all started when I realized&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":93,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9,20,6,26],"tags":[194,193],"class_list":["post-1674","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-happier-you","category-something-to-think-about","category-thought-to-ponder","category-well-being","tag-happiness","tag-happy"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>What Makes You Happy?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2011\/05\/what-makes-you-happy.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What Makes You Happy?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"&#8220;Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens \/ Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens \/ Brown paper packages tied up with strings \/ These are a few of my favorite things&#8221; &#8211; Oscar Hammerstein II, &#8216;The Sound of Music&#8217; This week, I stumbled upon the theme of happiness. It all started when I realized&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2011\/05\/what-makes-you-happy.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Inspiration Report\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-05-10T04:12:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2011-05-11T18:35:59+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jennifer E. Jones\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"What Makes You Happy?","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2011\/05\/what-makes-you-happy.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"What Makes You Happy?","og_description":"&#8220;Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens \/ Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens \/ Brown paper packages tied up with strings \/ These are a few of my favorite things&#8221; &#8211; Oscar Hammerstein II, &#8216;The Sound of Music&#8217; This week, I stumbled upon the theme of happiness. It all started when I realized&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2011\/05\/what-makes-you-happy.html","og_site_name":"Inspiration Report","article_published_time":"2011-05-10T04:12:15+00:00","article_modified_time":"2011-05-11T18:35:59+00:00","author":"Jennifer E. 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However, her greatest skill is crushing anyone in a game of \"Name That Tune.\" In her spare time, she is an amateur home chef, a rock star marathon runner and wannabe novelist.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/author\/jjones"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1674","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/93"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1674"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1674\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1678,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1674\/revisions\/1678"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1674"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}