“I've looked, I've searched, I've explored every mountain and rummaged every valley, and I can't find happiness. I just can't find it,” you might say. Maybe, just maybe, you've been looking in the wrong places. Remember that happiness is something that you have to bring to yourself; it will not come looking for you. Following, you will find some places that you may have failed to look.

Happiness Through Leisure

If you've never tried sitting in the sun or having a glass of wine under a shade tree or walking on the beach or hiking in the fall-colored mountains, you have cheated yourself out of moments of happiness and joy. People are sometime so obsessed with “finding” happiness that they do not take a quiet moment to enjoy the happiness that leisure can bring.

Happiness Through Travel

There is a great old saying that the two greatest teachers on earth are time and travel. Happiness can be found in going to places where you have never been. It does not have to be an expensive vacation to Switzerland; it can be a day-trip to the countryside or a ride into the city for a play and dinner. Look for places within a day's drive where you could spend a weekend and explore a new place. Travel opens your horizons and allows you to see how others live and move in the world.

Happiness Through Education and Discovery

The joy of learning something new, of discovering another way to do a task that is easier and quicker, of completing a course in baking or computer troubleshooting can flood you with happiness like you've never known. Education and discovery are important to happiness because you are not only working on finding happiness, you are directly working on building your self-esteem as well.

Happiness Through Small Pleasures

Petting your cat. Listening to Rachmaninoff's Symphony no. 1 in D Minor. Watching the sun make a rainbow through a cut-glass bowl. Sitting on the curb eating cotton candy while watching a parade. Telling the best joke you've ever heard. Watching the squirrels eat acorns. Calling an old friend with whom you've not spoken in years. Listening to wind chimes on a cool afternoon while sipping apple cider. Sound farfetched? Out of reach for you? Hopeless in the wake of that new job? Then find your own small pleasures and bask in the glory they can bring. You'll be amazed.