Happiness requires action. Perhaps someone exists in perfect contentment, impervious to the world’s woes, but that isn’t me. I am a responsive being. I react to situations. I have also come to believe my happiness is independent of the will and welfare of others. Accepting my own free will, I understand that I am able to choose how to feel about events. Patterns and programming have taught me a repertoire of responses. Whether these are positive or negative feelings is largely a memory I’ve attached to specific variables. For instance, if I find out I have been lied to, it may be in my best interest to feel compassion, but it may be in my programming to be offended. From that offense, I may choose an action that will feel either good or bad. This set of events (action, response, reaction) continues until a choice to proceed differently is made. If I am bent on deliberate creation of my own happiness, I begin to process offense in new ways. I may value peace, thus choosing immediate forgiveness. I may let go of my expectations and see them as they are, coming from a place of unhappiness. Consistently, deliberately choosing to feel good becomes the new norm. There is never a good reason to stay in a state of bad feeling.