As we bid farewell to 2011, let’s jump into 2012 with a resolve to make it the happiest year of our lives! Whatever it is that makes YOU happy, we say go for it! No matter what your other New Year’s resolutions may be – eating healthier, going back to school, organizing your home ”” you are ultimately making those goals to better your life, and in the end, to make you happy!

Why dedicate a whole issue to happiness? Think about how influential being happy is on our lives…

• The founding fathers valued happiness so much that they declared all people equally entitled to the rights of “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”
• “Positive psychology” or “happiness research” has emerged as the formal scientific study of happiness.
• In 2011, The General Assembly of the United Nations called upon member states to give more importance to happiness as it relates to achieving and measuring social and economic development.

So, like Judy Garland famously said, forget your troubles, chase all your cares away, and come on, get happy!