Cheer is the essence of happiness. What does Cheer look like? To me, it is a smiling face. It is a child caught up in a moment that causes excessive giggling. It is a performance or a job well done, recognized by observers, perhaps there is applause or someone delivers a compliment. Sometimes, cheer is going home from work knowing the next ten days are vacation days. It even looks like watering taste buds upon receiving that perfect scoop of your favorite ice cream.

What does Cheer feel like? Where do you feel it in your body? I feel my mouth turn upward into a smile, and then my heart feels lighter. I feel peace in my soul. It feels happy and it feels relaxed. I find it to be contagious, too. When I feel it, I want to share it in some way. Do your toes ever wiggle when you feel cheer? My belly relaxes. I feel warm light beaming from my eyes.

Cheer is the functions as happiness.

Feeling Cheer functions to help me let go of something otherwise burdensome and turns my face into peace and joy. When I feel it, I imagine warm excitement and relaxed acceptance blanketing all those around me. Perhaps my cheer lightens an otherwise arduous moment into a floating feather. Cheer also invites me to get away from being too serious. Even in serious moments, this feeling is helpful to keep my soul in balance.

I give you permission to explore and play with cheer today. What does it look like to you? How does it feel to you? Imagine what cheer’s function is for you. How is it working for you? Here’s an experiment. Visualize putting a cool cherry on the belly button in the picture above. What happens to this bright little being when you do that?

We are beings with real feelings…