What a Woman Emailed Me and What I Have to Say About It

I wrote the following over the weekend and shared it on Facebook. I hope it energizes you to swim deeper in the following truth: Happiness as an internal environment and choice, starts and ends with you.
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I've found reason to live long ago, says a song by White Denim (listening to it now: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ApZ9AyD6580).

Josh and I were out the door for a fun, early workout this morning.

You could say that was topped by seeing Nolan's face eat the french toast I made him once I was back home ("ooooh, thank you Mama.").

Then, our puppy, Holland, slept in until 11am (truth: we had to wake him at 11am). Hollandleuia!

Sitting down to get through a few emails, I loved reading the following note from a lovely woman I met at one of my last speaking events:

Hi Michelle, I remember meeting you at Ignite in November and love some of your quotes. You really inspired me to believe more of my own creativity and I went on to write my book "Get Blissed" which was published on the 7th of April. I am so excited about inspiring others from the stage now. Something I never thought to be possible before. It was awesome receiving an award from Raymond Aaron and meeting Jack Canfield in Toronto, Canada last month. Hope you're having a wonderful weekend. Natasha

But not all days are like this for any of us; where what's happening around us falls under the umbrella of the perfect environment or the perfect happening.

We've been alive long enough to know that not all days come with the perfect skiing conditions.

It gets windy, too cold, it's too wet, we get injured, we're too hot, it's slushy, too rocky, too…not happy.

But, what if I told you that you could be happy and at peace (one of my favorite feelings — peace), with or without the perfect ski conditions, and with or without the workout, the pup, that thank you, or thing in your life? And that there's one thing to do? Would you do it?

When asked what I believe contributes most to lasting happiness or success in life or business, I have one thing on repeat: "develop your spiritual practice", or said another way, "dive deeper into your personal development."

True self-realization.

And what I mean, of course, is not covered by simply attending feel-good, inspiring events though those can be red velvet icing.

It's about doing the work that doesn't always feel good and turning the finger back around to ourselves for why something is or isn't happening (no one else)…let's say, it's about acknowledging the shadow, sometimes over and over again.

Tending to the path (what are all these weeds doing here?), clearing it of all the tired, boring, and old stories and excuses we are choosing to keep alive. That's the work.

As my book How to Be a Walking Momtra says, focus on your happiness so you can RAISE happiness.

That's about one thing and one thing only: working on Self, getting to know who we are, light and dark, and what the real reasons are that we have or pose certain limitations on ourselves.

And, as importantly, allowing ourselves to create new, rich, fruit-bearing stories and limits (the skies are the limit), specifically all those that support what we say it is that we really want.

The more we do this, the more gems we find inside that will be expressed in what happens around us as well as in who we suddenly find sitting next to us, about to enjoy the next run with us.

Happiness as an internal environment and choice, starts and ends with you.

Find a reason to live every day, even just one reason to feel good. And may the reason, oh just maybe baby, be you.