Today's quotation:

Have you ever had your day suddenly turn sunshiny because of a cheerful word?  Have you ever wondered if this could be the same world, because someone had been unexpectedly kind to you?  You can make today the same for somebody.  It is only a question of a little imagination, a little time and trouble.  Think now, "What can I do today to make someone happy?"

Maltbie D. Babcock 

Today's Meditation:

I've had many people suddenly make my day brighter by sharing a kind word with me.  I've gone from being in a down mood--or even an indifferent mood--just by having someone say something positive and encouraging.  And when that happens, it gets me thinking--might I be able to have the same positive effect on someone else if I were to share something positive with them?

I've gone through most of my life thinking that my deeds and actions have no effect on other people.  I've always thought that people haven't really cared what I say or what I do, that I can't possibly have any effect on their lives.  They can have an effect on my life, of course, but I don't have any effect on theirs.

This perspective, I believe, has simply been a result of my fears.  I've always feared other people and their reactions to what I do; I've feared their judgment and criticism and rejection.  For that reason, I haven't tried to give to them the positive side of myself.  And while I can see how this tendency on my part might have been having a negative effect on others, I've learned in the past few years that it has more of a negative effect on me.  Because of my fears, I've robbed myself of the feeling of satisfaction that comes from cheering someone else up, from brightening their day.

Share the positive side of yourself.  Spread happiness and brightness.  Make other people feel better about themselves and the world that they live in, and your own world will become brighter.  You can add to the light of the world, simply by spreading the light within yourself.  The world deserves more of us spreading our cheerfulness, and we deserve more of what we'll feel when we spread it.

Questions to consider:

How do you feel when someone shares their sincere cheerfulness with you?  When they encourage you?

What kinds of things keep you from spreading the positive aspects of your self and your life?

How might you go about spreading your cheerfulness?

For further thought:

There is only one way to be happy and that is to make somebody else so. . . . When you rise in the morning form a resolution to make the day a happy one to a fellow-creature.

Sidney Smith

more thoughts and ideas on happiness

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