I remember a time in childhood--late on the last day of December--where my father surprised me with pigs in a blanket, and we watched the ball drop on TV. I didn't yet understand the significance of New Year's Eve, but it felt like something special and exciting.

When the next year rolled around, I longed to see that mischievous twinkle in his eye, but it never came. I intuitively understood that whatever stirred that one-time magic was not inherent: it required a willingness to dream.

In hard years like the last two, it's easy to ping pong between a sparkly-eyed longing for a better future and protective pessimism against an impossible world. I spent new years day carefully navigating these two extremes, trying to celebrate with the happy and mourn with the sad.

With so many hearts hurting, instead of "Happy New Year," I started wishing for Happiness in the New Year. With this subtle linguistic shift, raised spirits felt more doable. No matter how crappy the circumstances, the potential for happiness softened the malaise just enough to create space for renewal.

As I opened myself to the language of 2022, a tiny breath practice emerged: one to help cultivate happiness in hard times.

Here it is:

• Set a timer for 1 minute and pay attention to inhalations. INSPIRATION at its most physical.

• Let that go.

• Set a timer for 1 minute of exhalations and pay attention to the relaxation that comes as the ribs soften and the diaphragm releases.

• Let that go.

• Set a timer for 1 minutes and and try to hold the expansion of the inhale WHILE FEELING the release of the exhale.

• Let that go.

• Observe that changes in breathing, thinking, and feeling.

Breath awareness reminds us that we are alive--not always happy--but available to the potential of happiness. Attention to the way our breath drops downward as we inhale and then rises upward as we exhale reminds us that our lifeforce exists with sublime equipoise in both the ups and downs. It is the ember of optimism in all of life.

So to all of you dear friends, I send you happiness in any form and amount that brings you ease and peace. Like breath, it is your birthright and your true nature.