When you feel disillusioned or depressed, it can seem impossible to change your mood. Happiness can seem like a prize that other people were given and you were cheated out of. It may appear that the circumstances of your life are preventing you from being happy, while someone else’s circumstances allow him or her to be happy. You might be saying to yourself, “If only I had xyz (more money, better looks, a better job, a family of my own, a different family, a different body…), I would be happy.” Unfortunately, and it is an epidemic in the Western world, many of us have been conditioned to think that happiness is something you are given, or that can be acquired. We’re taught by either our families or by the culture at large that happiness is something that you can do or acquire. Yes, you can cheer yourself up for a period of time by going out and doing something enjoyable or distracting yourself, but it does not produce a lo...