Happiness is . . . From the book "Eat Pray Love"

I just finished reading the book "Eat Pray Love".  I was hesitant to read this book, as I am not really big into praying and didn't want to get sucked into some religious rant.  I am glad I decided to read it.  It was a different kind of book for me, but it was good for the soul.  There was one particular excerpt from the the book about happiness that I found inspiring and wanted to share:

" . . . people universally tend to think that happiness is a stroke of luck, something that will maybe descend upon you like fine weather if you are fortunate enough.  But that's not how happiness works.  Happiness is the consequence of personal effort.  You fight for it, strive for it, insist upon it, and sometimes even travel around the world looking for it.  You have to participate relentlessly in the manifestations of your own blessings.  And once you have acheived a state of happiness, you must never become lax about maintaining it, you must make a mighty effort to keep swimming upward into that happiness forever, to stay afloat on top of it.  If you don't, you will leak away your innate contentment.  It's easy enough to pray when you are in distress but continuing to pray when your crisis has passed is like a sealing process, helping your soul hold tight to it's good attainments."