What prevents you from being happy? Perhaps you have a list of one hundred things. Whatever they are, no matter how big or how small, step over them. They are little ants or buzzing bees. They are not meant to prevent you from happiness.

Consider obstacles speed bumps. They slow you down a little while, but they certainly don’t stop you. You keep going. You don’t honk at them. You don’t hold your fist up at them. They are mere speed bumps. They are not there to hassle you. You knew there would be speed bumps somewhere along the way. They were not put there just for you. They were there, and you happened to come across them. Now you go over them.

And you have allowed a letter in the mail to shake you -- or a bank balance gone awry, or a sideways glance from a stranger, or a dropped spoon. You make these matters whiplashes, and blame them for your state of mind. Don’t tell Me you don’t.

Nothing out there is responsible for you. Your reluctance to let go hinders you. Nothing out there does. What occurs may give you pause, but how much and for how long, you are the arbiter of that.

You go over and over what someone said to you and how dare they. Is it so important to your life that you must hold that irritation to you? Whatever the offense, it is not your mother that you must take it to heart. You are a free agent now to deal with the world as you will.

It is not the disturbances in life that slow you down. It is the prominence you give them in your life that slows you down. Tomorrow and the next day something else will come to take their place. The events in life do not hassle you. Your recurring thoughts hassle you. You hassle yourself.

Whatever shackles the world would put on you, you can burst them. If bubbles burst, so then can the unyielding thoughts that consume you? Who said that the encumbrances of the world have to pin you to the mat?

The stronghold that the world has on you is in your mind. Raise your mind higher, and you will rise above the barbed wire. Only your mind holds you prisoner, beloveds. Even if you are behind bars, it is your mind that imprisons you. Nothing else can. Oh, I realize that you purse your lips when I say that. You say to me: “How can You expect me to be happy when this and that are so?”

My answer is to get out of the dominion of outer events. You are not intended to be a minion of the world. You are not intended to be at its mercy. You are a sovereign Being, and your mission is to rise above the exigencies of the world. The world is relentless in its demands on you, yet it is your mindset that keeps you bound.

Your body and all the physical are incidental to the wealth of your mind and heart. Even under dire conditions, your heart is capable of joy. You think that is too hard, if not impossible, because you have been conditioned to think certain conditions have to exist for you to be happy. Nothing has to exist for you to be happy. You exist for you to be happy. Take sovereignty over your own thoughts. Become compliant with joy in your heart .

Whatever your situation, wherever you are, happiness is within your reach. Invite happiness to you. Let the obstacles take their course while you choose your birthright of happiness. Beloved, choose.