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People tend to think that happiness is a stroke of luck, something that will descend like fine weather if you're fortunate. But happiness is the resul...more

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Being content with what you have already is an art form that leads to a peace that can’t be replaced by anything else.

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There’s this human capacity for joy and endurance, even when things are at their worst. A joy that occurs not despite our suffering, but within it.

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You have to participate relentlessly in the manifestation of your own blessings.

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When it comes to developing a worldview, we tend to face this false division: Either you are a realist who says the world is terrible, or a naïve opti...more

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Marriage becomes hard work once you have poured the entirety of your life’s expectations for happiness into the hands of one mere person. Keeping that...more

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I had always been taught that the pursuit of happiness was my natural (even national) birthright. It is the emotional trademark of my culture to seek ...more

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I'm choosing happiness over suffering, I know I am. I'm making space for the unknown future to fill up my life with yet-to-come surprises.

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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 f...more

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I filled the song with everything I wished I could teach him about life. I tried to reassure him with every line about how the world is hard and unfai...more

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The search for contentment is, therefore, not merely a self-preserving and self-benefiting act, but also a generous gift to the world. Clearing out al...more

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But the very fact that this world is so challenging is exactly why you sometimes must reach out of its jurisdiction for help, appealing to a higher au...more

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Where did you get the idea you aren't allowed to petition the universe with prayer? You are part of this universe, Liz. You're a constituent--you have...more

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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 f...more

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As I focus on diligent joy, I also keep remembering a simple idea my friend Darcey told me once -- that all the sorrow and trouble of this world is ca...more