Happiness is a Choice

"Happiness if a choice.” I came across this sentence the other day as I was going through my daily life, and it really struck me as something to ponder. Nowadays aphorisms like this constantly float in and out of our consciousness on a daily basis, and rarely do we give them more than a few fleeting moments of contemplation. We all know that one of the downsides to our modern tech is that it has greatly decreased our attention span, but I believe that with diligence and steadfast commitment, we can not only change that, but we can also build great things with it.

So, what does a shorter attention span due to tech and social media have to do with happiness being a choice? Because of the nature of most social media these days and the soundbite lifestyle that it has somehow lured the majority of us into, we find ourselves continuously bombarded with emotion-provoking content. We rely on the algorithm to give us permission to be angry, sad, nostalgic, and even happy.

That same algorithm feeds into the things that we hate, the things that plague us as a Folk, the dangers in the world for people that look and believe as we do. It can be a powerful depressant, an unseen monster that lurks in the back of our minds and whispers that all is lost, and that this is an uphill battle that we can’t win. It seeks to defeat us before we even rise to fight it.

So, happiness is a choice. It’s a choice because we chose to not give in to it. We choose to see the beauty of what is here right now. We choose to love ourselves and our culture. We choose to give our spiritual loyalty to those whom it is rightfully owed: Our Own Gods. 

We choose to be pious, to pay forward with iron deeds that which mere winds cannot sweep away. We choose to participate in and perpetuate the gift cycle with the Holy Æsir, strengthening and maintaining the connection between Gods and man.

We choose to remember and give thanks to our ancestors. We choose to say their names aloud, keeping their memory alive in our hearts and minds. We choose to honour their winning of bright fame with glorious deeds, because it reminds us of what we’re capable of achieving. 

We choose these things because we instinctively feel the rightness of them, they ring true in our very souls. We choose them because we are born as Aryan men and women, imbued by the Æsir with nobility, therefore this is our natural and correct state of being. In Ásatrú, there is wholeness for us. There is healing for us. The first step on that road to wholeness and healing from this soul sickness is to choose to do something about it. 

Happiness is a choice. 

Goði Bodi Mayo

bmayo@runestone.org

~ From The Runestone, July 2026 ~