Happiness cannot be travelled to, owned, earned, worn or consumed. Happiness is the spiritual experience of living every minute with love, grace and gratitude. -Denis Waitley

Happiness is a feeling of the first beams of summer sun warming your face, the feeling of fresh grass between your toes, while you’re running down a hill and all your worries are forgotten for the moment.

It is lying on your terrace in cloudless summer night gazing at the stars and dreaming of the wonders the universe has in store for you.

Reading a book, snuggled up in blankets, drinking hot chocolate, when heavy rain is pattering on your window.

Happiness is your sisters laugh and the way her eyes gleam when she tells you about a particular wonderful day.

It is watching a movie or show with a friend and shamelessly rambling on about every tiny detail about your favourite character you deem important.

The moment of anticipation waiting for the curtain to lift for the play or musical you waited years for to finally see it.

Coming home ravenous from an exhausting day to the smell of your favourite food.

It is finishing a book.

The feeling of standing on top of a mountain, looking down on the far away world in the vale and feeling like it is yours to command.

Going out for dinner with friends and clinking your glasses, glad that you are here together.

The smell of earth after the rain, cinnamon, gingerbread and roasted chestnuts; the smell of a festival and the bustling people on the market, while everything is illuminated to brighten the night.

Happiness is a state of freedom that comes from driving around in your car, the wind blowing in your face and messing up your hair, singing along to music that might be a bit too loud together with your best friend.

Feeling like a child again when riding on a round about, laughing about the bewildered faces of the adults passing by and being more carefree than you have been in a long time.

It is standing on top of a Hill and looking down on the city that you grew to love.

It is paragliding, the liberation of your feet losing touch with the ground; you are flying away and the world is shrinking, making yourself feel infinite.

The silence that engulfs you, when you are standing alone outside in the freshly fallen snow; the same silence that tells you of the vastness of the world, yet to be explored by you.

Reading together with friends, either letting your friend experience a story while your voice breathes live into the letters on paper or enjoying the comfortable silence when each of you is far away in the world your books have taken you to.

It is staring into a campfire, losing yourself in thought and the mysterious beauty of the ever-changing play of flames, while sparks carry your wishes to the stars.

Happy people are not people who 'feel good' all the time; they are the people who are able to be guided by their negative emotions rather thanparalysedby them.