Many people say “ignorance is bliss.” I beg to differ. Sure, you may feel “happy” when you are not faced with the woes of the world, but that is certainly not bliss, which means “complete happiness” according to trusty old Webster’s. “Ignorance is bliss” simply connotes that by staying ignorant, one is only escaping the truths in life, and as daunting they may seem, one can coexist with these realities and still keep one’s happiness.

Identifying and accepting the realities of life as we know it give us a full understanding of what’s going on. Although the realities of life do not come fun-sized like Halloween candy, recognizing these realities will help us determine our actions to change these situations for the better, which will help us on our journey to contentment.

One day in English class, my English teacher quoted Hamlet saying, “there is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so.” I cannot think of a better non-clichéd quotation to express the same sentiment. Eliminating all thought is quite impossible and a bit too 1984; but applied to the topic at hand, “thinking” is exactly what differentiates optimists and pessimists. We often accept many unfavorable situations because they are forced upon us. However, we have the power to decide if the situation has some sort of positive implication or if it’s the start of a steep fall into the abyss. It’s all in our heads. We can, as optimists, anticipate the best possible outcome and try to do something about changing the status quo; or, we can, as pessimists, expect for the worst and get engulfed by the negativity.

Nonetheless, being happy 24/7 isn’t the right answer either. Those people actually freak me out a bit. If people feel happy all the time, they never experience any other emotions. Therefore, are they experiencing real happiness? If they are putting up the pretense of being happy, they must bury many feelings inside themselves.

Sure, there are some of those more not-so-happy emotions that we’d like to avoid such as gloom, fear, anger and disappointment; but those emotions are what make joy, enthusiasm, love and amazement feel even sweeter. It’s like having ice cream after tasting PTC paper (if you can taste it, that is). In addition, positive-thinking doesn’t only benefit you—your happiness triggers a chain reaction that can affect people up to three degrees of separation from you. It’s true—Harvard studies back me up on this one.

I shall pass one of my mantras to you; “accentuate the positive, and eliminate the negative.” I know, I know, it’s so shamelessly sappy, but you’ll have to admit it’s so true at the same time. Here’s what I think will help us all on our journeys to bliss. Accept adversity. Look for positive implications (even the slightest ones). Focus on those implications; and if there are none, karate-chop that adversity in half so that you can stick it in your back pocket to make a nice cushion and let the ride begin. Happiness, here we come.