My favorite definition of the word, happy is: enjoying, being marked by, or showing pleasure, satisfaction, and joy.

Think about it…isn’t that the absolute best definition of happy you’ve ever heard?! It’s so true. When you’re happy, it shows. When you’re happy, you’re satisfied with your current situation or at least content in the midst of it anyway. When you’re happy, you are marked with positivity and different from the rest, finding pleasure in life. When you’re happy, you are enjoying the joy on the inside of you from God. You realize that in His presence is fullness of joy and He gives you all things richly to enjoy…enjoying joy = being happy! Simple logic: If God gives you joy and wants you to enjoy richly all things He gives you as His Word tells us, then that means it’s His will for you to be happy according to this definition of happy.

Think about the last time you were unhappy. There was either a person that aggravated your peace or a situation that you allowed to steal your joy. But what does the Bible say about this? It says the chastisement or aggravation of our peace was upon Him and by His stripes you were healed. What does that mean? It means your stress, anxiety, and every psychosomatic disease (that causes you to feel dis-ease) was upon Jesus. It means He bore that stress, aggravation of your peace, and sickness as your substitute so that you don’t have to carry it. Stop carrying something that is not yours to carry. Rude! jkjk But seriously, would you just walk up and abruptly take something that isn’t yours and walk away with it as your own? Nope! I would like to think most of my readers wouldn’t do such. lol But we do exactly that each time we try and carry burdens that are not ours to bare.

When is the last time you marched into an operating room and tried to take the tools out of the heart surgeon’s hand and said, “Move over, Doc! I got this!” Ummmm, never! And if you have, then you are reading this blog from a jail cell or from a place with a real special jacket for you to wear. How ludicrous would that be of us to think we could handle the job of a heart surgeon if we are not in fact a surgeon?!

Yet, we do this each time we try and carry worry and fear about our future or past or present. Leave those hard cases for the Great Physician.

Next time you are: tempted to worry, catch your heart racing, have sweaty palms, or whatever physiological change clues you into the fact that you are maybe subconsciously stressed, remember it’s not yours to carry and it’s not your responsibility to fix.

I hope this mindset will take the pressure off to think your shoulders are even big enough to carry all that is on your mind. I hope this mindset will shift it off your shoulders and onto His. I hope this mindset will transform old thinking patterns that left you sad, anxious, or fearful.

I hope you will realize just as fast as you got depressed or worried, as you think in your heart so are you. With literally a single thought, you can change the entire trajectory of your life. It was with one thought that I chose to stop partying in college and worrying about being popular but instead to go to church where I cried through the announcements and slid into the altar almost as if I played softball and was sliding into homeplate. That decision led to others that brought me to marry my amazing husband. It was with one decision that I later chose to go on a missions trip to Haiti that would end up rescuing me when I thought that trip and later ones were all about rescuing those precious children. That decision led to others that caused me to find my happy. I hope your one decision to read this blog will lead you to more choices that will lead you out of depression and anxiety and into peace and joy.

Why are you not happy? Perhaps it’s simpler than you think. Maybe it has nothing whatsoever to do with outside things but it’s more of an inside job. Maybe you need a mindset shift that can happen as a result of your mind being renewed with The Word from this one blog. You literally could take this one blog and begin to build an entirely new life from here. It was this very truth you just read that changed everything for me almost 10 years ago. I hope you choose to let it do the same for you.

Here’s to you finding your happy in the same place I did…in The Word of God that I quoted above. It’s your choice. Choose life and if you need help with this further and you haven’t yet read my books, start there and if you need extra help after that, hit me up for Happy Coaching at adriennecooley.com. I coach on Wednesdays only for now so book a time using my calendly and I’d be honored to share more of what I’ve learned about why I wasn’t happy and how to happy! It’s a better way to live…live happy!

Happy Monday!

Adrienne