Do you want to be happier? We all do, right? Life is hard and our happiness can sometimes ebb and flow. But is it something we can control? In other words, is happiness something that happens to us or something we choose?

In the Book of Mormon, Nephi tells us that he “lived after the manner of happiness.” How did he do that? More important, how can we? That’s the focus of the next two episodes of the podcast, beginning today.

The Book of Mormon tell us that the only way to have real, lasting joy is to “be [a] truly penitent and humble seeker of happiness” (Alma 27:18).

OK. Fair enough. But how do we seek happiness? For starters on your own journey, I recommend studying 2 Nephi 5 and see what Nephi and his people did to live “after the manner of happiness.”

I’ve noticed a pattern in recent General Conference addresses and Ensign articles from general authorities and other church officers. They have used some common wording and themes in discussing our personal path to happiness.

In her April 2019 message, Careful versus Casual, Beck Craven taught: “Deep and lasting happiness comes by intentionally and carefully living the gospel of Jesus Christ.”

And Elder Ulisses Soares added, “Happiness is determined by habits, behaviors, and thought patterns that we can directly address with intentional action” (Paths to True Happiness, Ensign, April 2018).

I echo the words and invitation of President Henry B. Eyring from the October 2019 General Conference: “My prayer for today is that I may help you understand that greater happiness comes from greater personal holiness so that you will act upon that belief.”

How do we live “after the manner of happiness”?

For starters, we turn to the Savior and use the power of his atonement to receive both clean hands and a pure heart. That’s why prophets often talk about the “joy of repentance” and why Alma 27 says you have to be “truly penitent” in order to be a seeker of happiness. The Book of Mormon makes it clear that “wickedness never was happiness” (Alma 41:10) and that “despair cometh because of iniquity” (Moroni 10:22). So repenting as needed and becoming more holy in our thoughts, words and deeds, is square one on your personal journey to more happiness.

Repenting turns our thoughts, hearts and focus to Christ. As president Russell M. Nelson taught, “the joy we feel has little to do with the circumstances of our lives and everything to do with the focus of our lives.

“When the focus of our lives is on God’s plan of salvation … and Jesus Christ and His gospel, we can feel joy regardless of what is happening—or not happening—in our lives. Joy comes from and because of Him. He is the source of all joy” (October 2016 General Conference).

Remember King Benjamin’s invitation: “And moreover, I would desire that ye should consider on the blessed and happy state of those that keep the commandments of God. For behold, they are blessed in all things, both temporal and spiritual; and if they hold out faithful to the end they are received into heaven, that thereby they may dwell with God in a state of never-ending happiness (Mosiah 2:41).

Sister Craven: “As members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we are blessed to know how and where true happiness is found. It is found in carefully living the gospel established by our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and in striving to become more like Him.”

Listen to the words of apostle Neal A. Maxwell about the Savior: “We should be striving, attribute by attribute, to become more and more like Him, including by developing the spiritual manners that accompany living ‘after the manner of happiness’” (Moving in His Majesty and Power, p. 51, emphasis added).