Save Your Life Again

Since school is back in session, since the year is turning, the leaves are falling, the night air is cooler (or downright cold here in the Northeast), and change is inevitable, and new beginnings are inevitable, I think we should revisit the question this website is directed to. Why and how can happiness save your life?
The why is pretty self-explanatory. If you're happier, you'll live better. And probably longer. And with less stress. I don't think we really need loads of positive psychology studies to prove this.
But how is it to be accomplished? How be happier? As if that is easy, as if I can blithely say you can be happier and it will be so. I wish I were like Jean-Luc Picard on Star Trek: Next Generation and could just tell you "Make it so." And you would. Well, since I can't compel you as the captain of the ship, or wave a magic wand, I can only try to gently persuade. And I do have a kind of magic formula to share with you:
Pay Attention, Really Pay Attention To The World Around You. Commit Acts Of Attention To It. Then Fix Those Acts In Your Memory And In The World By Writing/Drawing Them.
It's really not so difficult. All you need is a notebook and a pen or pencil. 20 minutes here and there. The exercises I write up about three times a week, or your own. And your attention. And your will to be happier. That's all. I promise you if you work at this (yes, happiness takes work, like anything else worth having), you will become happier. So, in this time of transition, and of settling to something new, decide to be happier. Decide you can give yourself that gift.