What is Happiness Anyway?

Where would rate yourself on the “happy scale”? Are you someone who wakes up and just feels excited to get going with the day? Enthusiastic about whatever is going on?

If you are, more power to you! You’ve got a higher “happiness baseline,” and I love that for you.

That was not my truth for a lot of years. My panic disorder and life as a young, single mom left me feeling less than happy. I would have rated myself as a 4 or 5 on a happiness scale of 1-10.

If you feel that way, too, don’t fret. I have some good news: you aren’t doomed forever and ever amen.

Happiness goes beyond genetics. While genetics do play a role in your natural baseline, it doesn’t have to tell the whole story.

Although 50 percent of your happiness level comes from your genetic makeup and 10 percent comes from external circumstances outside of your control, you’re not totally screwed on the happiness front.

Forty percent of your happiness is made up of things totally within your control: your thoughts, actions and behaviors.

My new book, Teach Happy: Small Steps to Big Joy, is a blueprint to help you reclaim the 40 percent of your life you can control. It focuses on ways that teachers can establish agency around happiness and emotional health by refraining our thoughts, actions, and behaviors by practicing happiness habits.

We can create a happier life — the power is within us. The ability to reprogram our brains, take different actions, and adopt different behaviors is within our reach.

If you are ready to live a happier life and feel less bogged down by the overwhelm of your work or other areas of your life, I can’t recommend my book enough. Not just because I wrote it. But because the practices inside are the exact steps I have taken to completely change every aspect of my own life.

And I want that for you, too.

It’s time to teach happy!