It’s in our own best interest to start the day with happiness, so think of the people and things that you love first thing every day. Think of something that makes you laugh out loud. Go ahead and snort with the unbridled joy of it if you must.

You are always free to choose happiness, and it’s good for you. It’s healthy for body and spirit. I believe it’s our natural state of being.

How can anybody be hateful or bent on vengeance if he or she is happy? How can anyone be worried? How can anybody be unhealthy if she or he is filled with joy every moment of every day?

Please, share your happiness when you are able. Project it to the homeless person under the bridge. Project it to the one who sees you as his or her enemy. Share it with everybody you meet, no matter how innocuous. Project it to your waitress, your cashier, your mail carrier, to everybody who is a regular part of your life, but often goes unnoticed. Prove that you notice them, and don’t take them for granted. That will make your heart open wide, and it feels great.

Make other people laugh, if you happen to have that talent. When she was very young, my daughter used to tell jokes that were not funny, but, to this day, I get a warm spot in my heart whenever I think her telling one of them. Because it was my child, and I have and will always love her. So, even if you don’t have that talent, try to make somebody laugh.

And think about your children and other loved ones throughout the day whenever you need a little extra strength, or when you need to relax. Are you getting happy? Are you radiating love? I feel like I am.

You can share your happiness and love with any living thing, like trees and animals. (I also project mine to inanimate things.) You can tell the fauna likes it when you share with them, and I’m betting the flora likes your positive energy, too.

OK … I admit that some of the inanimate things I referred to earlier are dead animals that have been sadly hit by vehicles. Do you send a blessing to their spirits, or do you not look? I recently asked a few people that question, and was somewhat surprised to hear that most of them don’t look. But I don’t even pretend to be normal.

Marcelle Hanemann is a news reporter for The Daily News. You can email her at marcelle.hanemann@bogalusadailynews.com or call her at 985-732-2565, ext. 301.