Happiness is a condition of the soul. Pleasure, joy, and happiness all involved a sense of well-being, a sense of being up, and having good feelings toward oneself and/or others. The main thing in life is not to be afraid to be human. However, it seems that some individuals are convinced that life must be painful. They resent any good feelings in themselves and others. Joy seems somehow irresponsible to them. Sometimes you hear a person say that it is wrong to be happy when so many people the World over are in pain. We have all been down, bummed-out, unhappy, restless and fretful, sad and tearful. Depression is an extreme of this. It is painful and no one likes it, but it is still a normal response. Feeling depressed usually means we are angry or blocked at some point. Rather than denying the feelings, we would be healthier to use the natural time out that depression creates to work it out. Understanding that there are spiritual side effects from depression is important when one or one’s loved ones face this challenge. If a person feels angry but cannot let the emotion out, one often turns it in on oneself and gets depressed. When an individual would rather hit someone else on the head, one gets headaches. When an individual would much rather make someone else sad and tearful, they experience those emotions themselves. However, psychotic depression is much more serious and involves pattern of depression that are much more serious and far deeper and long-lasting. #RandolphHarris 1 of 11

Some people pray for the sorrow to go away and read the scriptures and listen to good music, like Those Were the Days by Aaliyah, in hopes of regaining peace. However, nothing seems to help. It appears as if their soul, all that is unique to them, has come under attack. Many people feel like that have no worth and that they are unworthy of their wonderful family. Although these individuals many not be suicidal, they believe if they died someone more deserving could take their place. And each day, this region of space that are in has a gravitational field that is so intense that no matter how hard they try to escape from the black hole, they cannot. Often times, it also seems like people or things, especially money are starting to disappear without a trace and no one can understand them, and some people eventually lose hope. Because these feelings are so deeply personal and painful, other individuals are ashamed and do not want to share them with anyone. Thoughts like these often come up: I have it all—a great job, relationship, and lifestyle—so why do I feel so dissatisfied and disconnected? Why am I not happier in my intimate relationships? How do I become more powerful—without becoming the jerk every dislikes? Overcoming depression has a lot to do with being present and trustworthy, grounded and transparent, and showing up as a warrior of integrity and intimacy, compassionately cutting through the roots of whatever is obstructing one’s well-being. God did not create us to have a depressed spirit. #RandolphHarris 2 of 11

One of the things people do not understand about life is that God wants us to be happy. I go through it myself, not necessarily depression, but I have a lot of hardships in my life and am around a lot of people I cannot trust, do not like and that are very torturous—they like to use painful events from the past and constantly remind one of them, they love to lie and distort information, and they even physically attack one when one is not paying attention. So, what helps is to befriend the vulnerability and realize that we are children of God and to force oneself to be happy and smile when you start to feel sad memories coming forward. Keep in mind that nothing lasts forever, and one day happiness will return. However, must we are disgusted by savage behaviour, our hearts should do out to them. Also, pray constantly for Heaven’s help to relieve the heaviness in one’s heart. Whatever one is experiencing may not have anything to do with sin. It is essential to understand that such a spiritual crisis is not a result of spiritual weakness nor lack of faith. Everyone is going to be anxious or downhearted on occasion. And never lose faith in your Father in Heaven, who loves you more than you can comprehend. Never, ever doubt that, and never harden your heart. Faithfully pursue the time-tested devotional practice that being the Spirit of the Lord into your life. #RandolphHarris 3 of 11

It is also important to look inside of ourselves and seek the keys for our spiritual well-being. It is so crucial to encounter the dimensions of our soul without robing it of its passion and warrior spirit, allowing it to full-bloodedly expand, permitting it to further energize and awaken the quintessential being within us. With perseverance, the soul becomes increasingly alive and present. Happiness is a conditional of the soul. This joyous state is further enhanced by living a righteous life. If we life in such a way to make life good, it can be. “Because they lead my people astray, saying ‘Peace,’ when there is no peace, and because, when a flimsy wall is built, they cover it with whitewash, tell those who cover it with whitewash that it is going to fall. Rain will come in torrents, and I will send hailstones hurling down, and violent winds will burst forth. When the wall collapses, will people not ask you, ‘Where is the whitewash you covered it with?’ In my wrath I will unleash a violent wind, and in my anger hailstones and torrents of rain will fall with destructive fury. I will tear down the wall you have covered with whitewash and will level it to the ground so that its foundation will be laid bare. When it falls, you will be destroyed in it; and you will know that I am the LORD. So I will spend my wrath against the wall and against those who covered it with whitewash,” Ezekiel 13.10-14. #RandolphHarris 4 of 11

In vulnerability there is a transparency and capacity for self-disclosure that can help deepen our connection with others. Becoming more vulnerable asks that we stretch beyond our comfort zone, but the resulting increase in depth, vitality, and connection make doing so worthwhile. Without vulnerability, there is no intimacy. Vulnerability does not always mean leaving the door wide-open; for example, if it does not feel right to drop your guard, but you know it is safe to do so, openly admit that you are guard—such an admission itself is an act of vulnerability. Or if you are with someone you know you cannot trust with your vulnerability, do not “should” yourself into being vulnerable. Be discerning with your vulnerability, which is something they do not teach in college. Social engineering in college can open people up to being preyed upon because they are trying to break down racial or class segregation, but sometimes there are risks that need to be considered and one has to remain aware of that. Do not allow teachers and professors and community members to whitewash you values to the point that you are making foolish decision and hanging out with people you should not. Sometimes people are not beings or class discriminating, they are just trusting their instincts. Vulnerability can be a risk, especially emotionally, but not doing what can to protect ourselves can be a bigger risk. #RandolphHarris 5 of 11

Empathy also needs an empathic boundary, meaning discernment so one does not get overly absorbed in or identified with others’ emotional states—standing back far enough to keep them in clear focus, resonating with what they are feeling without losing ourselves in it. Being empathetic does not mean putting up with someone’s problems because one thinks they are obligated to, but it does make it very difficult to dehumanize others, regardless of how strong a stand we might need to take with them. Empathy helps keep us from getting numb, heady, or overly detached. It begins with and reinforces vulnerability. Some people open easily, loves easily, connect easily, but their personal boundaries are all but missing. Saying “no” can be very difficult for one, so one’s “yes” lacks authenticity and real conviction, existing mostly as a means of not displeasing or upsetting anyone. The idea is to develop healthy boundaries. No one needs to feel alone on the road of life, for we are all invited to come unto Christ and be perfected in the Lord. Happiness is the purpose of the gospel and the purpose of the redeeming Atonement for all people. #RandolphHarris 6 of 11

Sometimes people lie around in the afternoon, are in bed by eight, and there in their beds alone the past rises like a tide, over and over, to swamp them with memories they cannot handle. Their loved ones die again, and again and they have to face that they could not save them. These memories come back to them with extraordinary vividness. “Because you disheartened the righteous with your lies, when I had brought them no grief, and because you encouraged the wicked not to turn from their evil ways and so save their lives, therefore you will no longer see false visions or practice divination. I will save my people from your hands. And then you will know that I am the LORD,” reports Ezekiel 13.22-23. People are created by God with rational endowments necessary for the conduct of society and government. People desire not only to live, but also to live well. This further desire implies that people must find their ultimate happiness. Such ultimate cannot be found in the attainment of a temporal, and therefore temporary, good, but only in the ultimate perfection that is God. Owing to the Fall, humans cannot know by natural reason what one must do to obtain this final supernatural end. God has therefore revealed to people certain rules to supplement natural laws. Hence it becomes clear that in order to achieve full human stature, individuals need both natural law, for social and political purposes, and revealed law, for everlasting felicity. #RandolphHarris 7 of 11

 Revealed law is contained in the Bible and the traditions of the church. Natural law and reveled law are jointly, and not separately, the correct guide. God is pure act and in him existence and essence coincide; Angels are immaterial and they differ from all natural, not purely intellectual creatures in that they behold the face of God directly; the soul is the form of  humans, and not a separate substance. God is law unto himself, and that law is the lex aeterna, which is both the source of all other law and itself manifested in all other laws. In the divinely revealed law, it is manifested directly, so to speak; in natural law, indirectly. For natural law is discovered by human reason, and human reason is created by God according to the lex aeterna; therefore the dictate of natural law, spring from the lex aeterna. God has given reason to every human. He has illuminated people. “The light of thy countenance is signed upon us, Lord,” reports Psalms iv.6-7. Hence we learn the will of God by using our reason. The will of humans is free. Everything good that reason sees as such has something unpleasant annexed to it. And everything evil that reason sees as such has something pleasant attached to it. For reason cannot see the absolutely good. Hence, although we always will the good, we can never will the absolutely good; as a result the will is always free to choose between several relative goods. #RandolphHarris 8 of 11

The two springs of human action are knowledge (reason) and will. The will always wills the good; and the good is apprehended by reason. Sin results from the imperfect operation of reason, which can never apprehend the good. Sin is therefore intimately linked with both the freedom of the will and the imperfection of reason. It is never committed as a positive action or desired for its own sake, but is the result of a loss. Evil, by implication, is a privation. To avoid evil, it is necessary to supplement the law of nature. And since the law of nature is embodied in secular government, the revealed law is embodied in the church. This is the proof that church and start are intimately connected. Thus we may see that the Lord is merciful unto all who will, in the sincerity of their hearts, call upon his holy name. “Behold, the Lord hath redeemed my soul from hell; I have beheld his glory, and I am encircled about eternally in the arms of his love. And I desire that ye should remember to observe the statutes and the judgments of the Lord; behold, this hath been the anxiety of my soul from the beginning. My heart hath been weighed down with sorrow from time to time, for I have feared, lest for the hardness of your hearts the Lord your God should come out in the fulness of his wrath upon you, that ye be cut off and destroyed forever,” 2 Nephi 1.15-17. #RandolphHarris 9 of 11

We need to recognize that wanting to is the determining factor which leads us to lay hold upon the word of God and be happy. Perseverance in making correct decisions is what leads us to happiness. Happiness comes as the result of our obedience and our courage in always doing the will of God, even in the most difficult circumstances. “And now that my soul might have joy in you, and that my heart might leave this World with gladness because of you, that I might not be brought down with grief and sorrow to the grave, arise from the dust, my children, and be people, and be determined in one mind and in one heart, untied in all things, that ye may not come down into captivity; that you may not be cursed with a sore cursing; and also that ye may not incur the displeasure of a just God upon you, unto the destruction, yea, the eternal destruction of both soul and body. Awake, my children; put on the armor of righteousness. Sake off the chains which ye are bound, and come forth out of obscurity, and arise from the dust,” reports 2 Nephi 1.21-23. Yes, we find happiness in the midst of the trial of our faith. The Lord manifests himself to us through his tender mercies, which we find along the road of happiness. We see with increased clarity his hand in our lives. This joyous state comes as a result of righteous living. #RandolphHarris 10 of 11

Happiness is the object and design of our existence. If we pursue the path that leads to it, and this path is virtue, uprightness, faithfulness, holiness, and keeping all the commandments of God, then happiness will also be the end thereof. The whole crusade for control of the emotions is, of course, emotionally grounded, and it is prosecuted in a most emotional fashion. Emotions are the means by which we make contact. We may talk angrily or warmly toward another; both are good contact or potential contact, for contact is established only if it has the support of our emotions. The price we pay for avoiding the pain of being fully alive is that we are excluded from the pleasure as well. The way to love other people is to express what we feel—anger and love—without aiming to hurt feelings. Open but reverent communication is how to make love in our lives. Noting in the World is better and more pleasing than friendship. Without it, the World would lose the Sun. People are not singing praises of stars because of their crystalline beauty, but their combination into a magnificent sky. A self-confident, glamorous gentleman or gentlewoman is especially captivating, and with his or her faint smile particularly engaging, because of the way they fix their eyes is an exchange that makes us feel good. #RandolphHarris 11 of 11