PREAMBLE
What is Unshakable Happiness?
-Donna Martire Miller
I will start this section the same way it will end with this core belief. YOU deserve to be happy. YOU deserve to live your life in the way that your deepest desires have been leading you throughout your life. YOUare your greatest asset, resource, and best friend … Let me explain.
Recently my sister Sandra gave me an ancestry kit as a gift. I followed the directions and sent it in. The outcome was surprising. My parent’s families are from different parts of Italy, Naples, and Sicily. My ancestry, however, determined that I was 85% Italian, 10% Turkish, and 5% French! Ooh, La, La! Currently family members are American too. I began to think about that. I started to do the math. I have two parents, four grandparents, eight great grandparents, 16 great, great grandparents, 32, 64, 128, etc., into the hundreds of thousands of ancestors that I suddenly felt blessed and sustained by.
Ater all, many stories have been passed down in this lineage. How it all began, our faith and a creation story. Stories of love and love lost, those that lived as heroes and those that led a simpler life. From these stories came our family traditions and rituals. Genealogy had me imagining my ancestors living by the ocean or in the mountains. Ancestors that lived in Europe or worldwide, all interwoven with this bloodline that eventually became my inheritance. I no longer felt alone.
At each stage of my own development, I perhaps have unknowingly played out a part of their life’s adventure as they pursued happiness. And the beat goes on as I offer the learning and experiences life offers, what I know about pathways to happiness on to my loved ones, children, and grandchildren.
Sonia Lyubomirsky et al. explains that 50% of the variance in our happiness level is determined by our genetic factors. It seems that some of our ability to be happy is built into our DNA. Ten percent of our ability to be happy is determined by “Our life circumstances,” such as living during a global pandemic. This research also claims something that I find to be amazing! Up to 40% of the ability to increase or achieve sustainable happiness can be attributed to our moment-to-moment choices! This means that our thoughts, words, actions, and the activities we choose to engage in can increase our well-being and joy in our day-to-day existence!
In his book “Choose the Life You Want,” Tal Ben-Shahar writes that we as individuals canchoose to affect our own happiness and well-being substantially! The 40% of a person’s happ
