The ACTUAL secret to happiness, most of the time...

 Hello - this is a personal post from the inside depths of me. me. me.

This doesn't happen so often on my blog anymore. People have taken advantage of who i am and what i offer of myself in the way of communication and honesty and openness. It has made it very difficult for me to 'share' who i am and what i do and what i enjoy. But this is a post i have to write. I want to share with people, with women, what i know about the secret of happiness. Because i feel, right now, at this moment, i know it. i KNOW it.

 I am a very ordinary person with all the daily worries and anxieties of anybody else.

I value the same things and i work toward the same securities. 

My loved Ones become very ill. My child struggles. My friends need support. My bank balance causes me sleepless nights. Awful negative people invade my time and my privacy. I feel unsafe. I worry for the future...

 and i wake up every day and think "i am happy" 

i do not mean deliriously happy in a 'so what!?' // 'Mary Poppins' //  'oh look at the Spring Flowers' kind of a way. I mean that i have an inner sense of happiness that tells me:

 "This part of your life is AWFUL right now. But you are OK"

and what does this secret of happiness allow me to do?

- it allows me to love my family and let them love me back

 - it allows me to be a friend and have great friends

 - it allows me to exercise my body to the maximum

 - it allows me to enjoy all the foods i wanna eat and stay healthy (truly it DOES)

 - it allows me to work hard and then a bit harder

 - it allows me to ask for support. ASK FOR HELP.

 - it allows me to be supportive to others

  - it allows me to laugh - actually often!

 - it allows me to be every aspect of myself that i have ever ever ever wanted to be...

Are you intrigued?

The actual secret to happiness - to being really content and happy, almost all of the time is:

[[ self respect ]]

To respect yourself inside and outside. To love yourself if you want to, if you can.

But to value and respect you, your rights, your mind, your body, your feelings, your thoughts, your woes, your joys. To respect that you are as important as every other person you meet. You will always be strong - even and especially when you are alone if you can learn to have: total respect for you.

Let your happiness begin.