Happiness isn’t something you’re owed

In 2020, only 14% of Americans reported being very happy and 50% reported feeling lonely and isolated. (1)

Of course, this is not a shock considering 2020 was the height of global lockdowns and an unprecedented shift in our daily lives.

Psychologists and therapists have always taught that any dramatic change, whether positive or negative, elicits a stress reaction. This was the first time perhaps in all of recorded human history that a global change occurred.

In the midst of all this upheaval, there were some who actually found greater joy and a sense of freedom, even though we all still experienced great loss due to Covid19, losing family members to this unexpected disease.

So the question we will be addressing today is:

Where does happiness come from?

You’ve all heard the stories of a person living in poverty and without modern comforts being joyful and at peace in their life. There are many people around the world who live simple lives, eating the grains they grow, drinking water from a well they dug or captured from heavy rain fall, and resting beneath the shade…