Since graduating college, I’ve been on a pursuit of arriving at genuine happiness. I wanted to learn how to fill my days with some of its best moments. I didn’t want to relish in the inevitable upsets or disappointments, rather, I wanted to find a way to be happy each and every day. This didn’t come without qualms, though. I tried dishonoring my negative emotions — which only led to guilt when they would arise. I tried faking it until making it — which did nothing but make me angrier at not feeling the way my smile indicated I should. I even tried speaking ‘happy’ affirmations over my life — which simply turned me into a liar. None of these things worked, but I wasn’t done trying.

After receiving a copy of Jacqeuline Pirtle’s book 365 Days of Happiness I was immediately intrigued. Jacqueline’s tagline is: Because happiness is a piece of cake. After all my attempts at pursuing it, I surely didn’t think it was that easy, but I knew the next 365 days would prove me otherwise; at least I hoped it would.

As I started (and continued) reading — some days being more impactful than others —fresh revelation slapped me right in the face. It wasn’t about the words in the book that helped me find my happiness, it was what the words implied: happiness is a choice.

It is not in NOT doing things or feeling a way that happiness arrives, rather, it is in doing the things that make you happy that it shows up. Jacqueline reminds readers of this with her daily inspirations for finding and identifying happiness. Not only does she encourage us to find our childlike selves and bask in that awareness, but she also implores us toward introspection and challenges us to shift our perspective by focusing not only on the external satisfaction, but on the internal. Jacqueline encourages us all to pursue happiness, turn lemons into lemonade, and shift our frequency to a level that allows us to operate as our fullest selves.

Identify what makes you happy, and do those things. 

Pursuing happiness is a constant choice, and this book reminds us of that with its daily calls-to-action. Do this. Smell that. Feel this. Imagine that. This daily manifesto reminds us to take action and do things in order to achieve the happiness we long for. In so many ways, Jacqueline reminds us that happiness isn’t as far as it seems and that it’s simply through habit and perspective that we can find happiness.

Happiness manifests itself in many ways, but the purest way to achieve it is to understand what makes you happy, and to act in alignment with those things. It’s to continue to discover yourself and to be intentional and consistent about caring for the deepest parts of you; it’s about action. And knowing all of that, perhaps happiness really is a piece of cake.

This review was written for/in partnership with Book Publicity Services.