Incredibly important...practicing gratitude.  We're reminded every day by the media and others about what we DON'T have...it's up to use to remind ourselves about what we DO have.  We have everything we need today to be happy - if we appreciate it. 

Time Magazine article:

 http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1015832-1,00.html

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1015832-4,00.html

gratitude journal

One way to increase happiness is the gratitude journal—a diary in which subjects write down things for which they are thankful. She has found that taking the time to conscientiously count their blessings once a week significantly increased subjects' overall satisfaction with life over a period of six weeks, whereas a control group that did not keep journals had no such gain.

Gratitude exercises can do more than lift one's mood. At the University of California at Davis, psychologist Robert Emmons found they improve physical health, raise energy levels and, for patients with neuromuscular disease, relieve pain and fatigue. "The ones who benefited most tended to elaborate more and have a wider span of things they're grateful for," he notes.

Another happiness booster, say positive psychologists, is performing acts of altruism or kindness—visiting a nursing home, helping a friend's child with homework, mowing a neighbor's lawn, writing a letter to a grandparent. Doing five kind acts a week, especially all in a single day, gave a measurable boost to Lyubomirsky's subjects.

"Gratitude Visits" & "Three Blessings"

The single most effective way to turbocharge your joy, he says, is to make a "gratitude visit." That means writing a testimonial thanking a teacher, pastor or grandparent—anyone to whom you owe a debt of gratitude—and then visiting that person to read him or her the letter of appreciation. "The remarkable thing," says Seligman, "is that people who do this just once are measurably happier and less depressed a month later. But it's gone by three months." Less powerful but more lasting, he says, is an exercise he calls three blessings—taking time each day to write down a trio of things that went well and why. "People are less depressed and happier three months later and six months later."

http://www.reflectivehappiness.com

http://christinekane.com/blog/gratitude-journals-and-why-they-work/

http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2007/11/19/dont-like-meditation-try-gratitude-training-plus-follow-up-to-testing-friends-firestorm/