It’s that time again my ducklings. Welcome back.

If there is one thing that is becoming more and more clear now that I am in college, it’s that happiness is not something to be sacrificed. I know I may be preaching to the choir, but this is serious business. Not just in college is happiness essential, but for everyday life outside of that too.

Happiness (hap-pi-ness) n.: the state of being happy.

Ah, would you look at that! Not something hard to fathom, so why do we have so much trouble being happy? I have a few clues as to why:

Reputation

This one is big folks; we all have one. In the workplace most of us put on a show. We have to pretend we are just fine even when we aren’t so we seem approachable, professional, and put together. In the school setting, we want to seem like we know what we are doing, look intelligent, and act like we can handle everything and then some. If we, for a second, get real with ourselves about our limits, our happiness decreases because we feel like we have fallen short; at least I do.

Expectations

These are high for the most of us. Whether you are the main provider of your family, or the first generation college student (hollaaaa), there is a super high expectation to get in there and get-er’-done, no matter what. Obligations are responsibilities. A lot counts on us. Mental health is a huge contender here- you come first.

This equation can sum it up for us:

High Expectations = Stress = Not Happy

Know that you are only human, and no one can ever ask more of you than to give it your best.

Standards

These can be set by others or yourself. They are usually super high, which adds to your stress (see above equation, subbing “Expectations” for “Standards”), and can cause ridiculous amounts of unhappy hormones. And who wants those? Uh, not me. Standards are great for goal setting for yourself, but at the end of the day it doesn’t matter what other people think.

So let me put it this way; know that you are always good enough, strong, one of a kind, and successful. Giving it your all is all you can do.

Happiness is a state of mind worth being in, it improves your day-to-day life. So take a deep breath, and get your happy juice flowing.

With love,