August 18, 2025- Our happiness is right here

“There is only one way to happiness and that is to cease worrying about things which are beyond the power or our will. ”

~Epictetus

A recent Cornell University study found that 85% of the things we worry about never happen at all. Additionally, the large majority of the things that do happen end up being easier to get through than we imagine they will be. Our imagination can be a scary place. Reality – not so much.

Planning and worry are not the same thing. We can consider possible responses to future conditions without attaching so much negative emotion to the exercise. We can use today to build ourselves into a more skilled, more resilient version of us, who is better equipped to take on challenges, whether we anticipated them, or not.

Our worry will not cause nor prevent circumstances from coming up. What we can be assured of is that if we spend our days worrying about tomorrow, it will be impossible to find peace and happiness today.

Let’s do our best to focus on right now, on just our next choice. Let’s find our happiness by remaining in this moment, and the reality we can observe, not in the possibilities we can imagine.

What would the best version of you do, right now? Do that. That is where your peace and your happiness exists.