I once heard someone say that sometimes you can't always choose happiness, and it really made me think. Is that actually true? Are there circumstances or individuals who make it impossible for us to choose happiness? Well, certainly there are circumstances and people that may certainly make it difficult. But difficult is not impossible.

For example, an unspeakable tragedy may befall you and your family. The circumstance is dire. There is nothing happy about it. And yet, does that circumstance control your emotions? Well, it does if you let it. Some people may say, "Come on, you're not being real here. Something terrible happens to you and you decide you're going to choose to be happy about it?! That just doesn't make sense!"

Let me ask you this: Does it have to make sense? Does it have to make sense that I will choose to be happy regardless of the circumstances or what others may decide makes sense or not? Does it matter what such individuals think - those who would say that it makes no sense to be happy in dire circumstances?

Here are the facts: Other people and the circumstances and events of your life do not control your emotions. YOU control your emotions. You are the one steering the boat! You are the one with ultimate responsibility in your life. And even if any number of people will say that it makes no sense to be happy after you've picked yourself up off the floor after an extremely difficult time in your life, what truly does make sense is that you choose to think thoughts and feel feelings that are supportive to you.

Awareness is the first step in making lasting changes in your life. Take special note of your thoughts throughout the day. Are you thinking supportive thoughts or negative thoughts? Remember that your thoughts will lead into your emotions. Think depressing thoughts and you'll become depressed. Think happy thoughts and you'll become happy. This will happen regardless of whether you believe this is true, and regardless of what is going on in your life.

Choose the positive perspective, the one that supports you, lets you grow and move forward. And remember that happiness is a choice. It is a decision you get to make every day.

Author's Bio: 

Dante Petrilla has been studying the success literature for the past decade and used the techniques and skills he learned to turn his own life completely around. He transformed himself from a depressed person to a happy person once he learned to direct the focus of his thoughts and emotions. The one thing he found that made the techniques he learned so effective was the use positive affirmations to install them into everyday thinking. Dante is also a writer who enjoys writing in the personal development area.

Dante is also a memory training expert, and has written the book How to Memorize Anything with The Secret of Your Perfect Memory which is available on Amazon. He is also in the process of turning this into an audio book, which will be available in the near future.

Dante is an AUNLP certified life coach and NLP Master Practitioner, member of the American University of NLP, and also a Global Sciences Foundation member. He is now making a deeper study of NLP in order to implement what he has learned on his journey so that he might impart that knowledge and help others.