In the Jewish religion, the month of Adar is considered the month of happiness.

Adar is the sixth month of the Jewish calendar, and it usually falls in late winter or early spring.

According to Jewish tradition, Adar is known as the month of happiness because it was the month the Jewish people were saved from destruction in Egypt, and it welcomed in a new season of miracles.

It is said that when Adar enters, joy increases.

Since we are now in the month of Adar, I wanted to take a moment and write about happiness.

Happiness is a choice.

This is something that I can’t emphasize enough. We have a choice every day to determine the direction of our lives.

While we can’t choose everything, we can certainly choose most things. And one of those things we get to choose every single day is our mindset.

We can choose to be happy, or we can choose to be miserable. It really is that simple.

Now don’t get me wrong, I understand that life can be really challenging. And outside factors sometimes affect our ability to choose happiness. And sometimes, happiness may seem like an unreasonable expectation.

But, in general, we have a choice when we get up in the morning. We each get to choose how we’re going to face the day.

It’s not always easy, but I am doing my best to face the day by choosing happiness first thing in the morning.

Unhappiness is also a choice.

Lately, I have experienced some incredibly unhappy people.

While I was recently standing in line at the post office, a mother and her adult son were directly in front of me. The son looked like he was in his twenties, and they were there to get his passport. The son was so mean to his mother the whole time they were there. And the mother just stood there and took it.

It made me feel incredibly uncomfortable. I kept thinking, “how can this woman be happy when she is treated so terribly?” and “How can a son treat his mother like that?”

It wasn’t my place to say anything, but their unhappiness was definitely apparent.

Many times, it’s not what you say but how you say it. This son was choosing to say things in a very demeaning way when he could have said the same thing in a much nicer tone.

He was choosing unhappiness and spreading it to his mom in how he treated her. It was very discouraging.

I’ve seen many individuals choosing unhappiness lately, especially on the roads.

So many people are just trying to get from point A to point B while forgetting what life is all about.

Happiness and unhappiness are both a choice, and we need to decide which one we’re going to choose.

I choose happiness and anything that keeps me focused on the positive side of life.

Gratitude leads to greater happiness.

It’s been scientifically proven that gratitude elevates your mood.

Happiness is about being grateful for what we have while realizing that we all struggle.

Life isn’t always going to be happy, but that doesn’t mean we can’t choose happiness even in life’s struggles.

So many good things happen in our lives at the very same time we are struggling. But it’s up to us to choose where we will place our focus.

We can find happiness even when life is hard by focusing on those good things.

I try to remind myself every day to be thankful for what I have and to focus on the joys in my life.

Yes, there are days that are hard. Everyone has hard days where it’s a challenge to find those happy moments.

But if you honestly search for it—happiness will always be there.

Happiness can be as simple as your morning cup of coffee. It can be spending time with your husband or your children. It can be a good book or a walk in the park.

There are so many things to be happy about.

Sure, maybe your day at work didn’t go as well as you would have liked. But make it a point to find something to look forward to when you get home.

Whether it’s spending time with your family, cooking a meal that you love, or watching your favorite television show, create those moments of joy in your life.

I promise that if you make these moments a priority, they will help you find your happiness again.

I truly believe there is something in every day that we can be happy about.

Seek out those moments of joy and be grateful for them.

Happiness is a state of mind.

While it’s true that happiness is an emotion and something that we feel, it can also be a state of mind.

To me, happiness is a strength of character. It’s about looking at your life and saying, “I have the strength to overcome this situation I find myself in. And I choose to be happy no matter what.”

The definition of happiness is “the state of being happy.”

Happiness is a state of mind that we get to choose every moment of every day.

It’s not the amount of money we have in our bank account. It’s not the car we drive. And it’s not our last vacation.

While “things” can certainly make you happy, it’s not lasting happiness.

True happiness is the people we surround ourselves with and our willingness to choose to be happy—even when all those “things” are gone.

It’s really the choices we make that lead to our own happiness. And sometimes, that means choosing to pull ourselves away from people who choose to be unhappy.

It’s hard to live in a mindset of happiness when the people around you choose to be miserable instead.

There are relationships that are toxic. And when we stay in them, it’s very challenging to live in a state of happiness with toxic people.

One of the greatest sources of my own happiness is the people I surround myself with.

Happiness is a natural by-product when I surround myself with people who truly care about me.

When the people around me are focused on the positive things in life, I tend to focus on the positive things as well. 

Our overall happiness is dependent on four simple questions.

I recently read an article in Inc Magazine that shares four questions Steve Jobs believed we should ask ourselves to determine our overall happiness.

The first question was actually two questions combined:

“Am I living the life that I want and doing the work that I want to do?

The next question:

“If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?”

And the last question:

“Am I doing what I love?”

These questions don’t just have to be about your job, they can also be about the work you are doing in your home and your community. They are great questions for each of us to ask ourselves.

Steve Jobs said, “Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.”

This was one of my most important takeaways, and I wanted to pass it on to you.

Don’t waste time living someone else’s life. Make your life count and be authentically you.

Don’t try to be anyone else. Don’t copy what anyone else is doing. Those things aren’t going to make you happy.

Go out there and find your own happiness. It’s about looking deep inside yourself and finding what it is that you really want.

For me, that is surrounding myself with people who love me, and I love back.

I’ve stopped doing those things that everyone else is doing, and I’m doing those things that make me genuinely happy.

We have choices every day.

Let’s choose to do the things that we actually want to do.

Let’s choose to do the things that we love.

And most of all, let’s choose to surround ourselves with people who love us, and we love back.

This is what will lead to a life of greater happiness and increase our joy beyond the “things” in life.

Happiness is a choice—let’s choose it every single day.