Giving yourself the gift of happiness

Happiness is the best gift to get at the holidays. But genuine joy doesn't come gift wrapped.

There's nothing you can buy that will make you happy for very long. Happiness comes from your heart - healing its hurts, connecting it to your loved ones and then savoring the warm feelings that follow.

Your life will never be perfect, of course. But the happiest people are loving life 80 to 90 percent of the time. These folks have learned to "flourish" by steadfastly focusing on generating high levels of satisfaction. That prevents the inevitable problems of life from overrunning the love in their hearts.

Flourishers follow six...