Somewhere along the line you may have developed the philosophy that your happiness is dependent on the approval of others and that being "liked" is imperative for your own happiness. And that need to be liked or approved of has shaped the way you and I present ourselves to the world. However, in doing so we lose who we are, we lose our authentic selves and any kind of authentic happiness. Today, it is time to become your own best friend and the only person whose opinions matters. Today, recognize that being authentically happy starts with the realization that you are both the source and the cause of your own well-being. We never get to experience the world as it really is; we only get to experience our thoughts about the world. It isn't actually other people’s disapproval that makes us unhappy; it was our mistaken belief that happiness is something that comes from outside of ourselves in the form of approval. Even when it looks as though our emotional state is being dictated by our circumstances, that is never true. Our thoughts are the root of our emotions. Today, begin to recognize that all the happiness you have been looking for outside of you can finally be yours when you stop chasing and start choosing. The more you are willing to love yourself, in all your messy glory, the less you will go searching for happiness in the wrong places. When you are comforted by our own self-love, we no longer need to find comfort through external fixes. Today, recognize that nothing is either good or bad but thinking makes it so.

Just for today, I am my own best friend. Other friends will come and go. But I am always here with and for myself. I support myself in feeling good. I am far more than other people's opinions. My opinion of myself is the only one that matters. I love and approve of myself unconditionally. I love and approve of myself no matter what they say, do or think. I am safe. I am loved and everything is working out for my highest good. And so it is.