Saturday, April 9, 2011

Happiness

Happiness is always a good goal to aim toward, and I was very happy at least once this week, which I consider a victory. Yay me!

I got another award from the wondermous Deirdre Eden-Coppel, who based her award on what she read of my blog. That is so very cool! She is a great visual artist--check this out:

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Pretty awesome picture, isn't it?

Anyway, happiness is something that I have to work very hard at. Every day, I have to consciously make a decision that I am going to be happy. I spend a lot of time thinking of all the things that can go wrong, which just plain sucks. It also tends to depress the heck out of me, and who needs that?

I think that some mental disorders are future-oriented, and I have absolutely no research to support that. Anxiety, for instance, is all about the big "What if?" Everything is a worst case scenario because there is no target for the fear. It's all about what is going to rather than what IS. No room for the present in all that worrying about tomorrow!

Because it is so easy for me to get ensnared by the "What if?s" in life, I decided to make a conscious decision to BE happy. It's a big shift in my gears--I have to stop and focus on the sound of my breathing or the warmth of the sun on my skin or brightness of a full moon. Sometimes it is a real effort to stop and ponder these little things, especially when my stress level is high. But I try to take a couple of minutes a day to work on this, and it seems to be working. These little changes will result in a big change down the road, and maybe one of these days the "What if?s" won't bother me so much.

2 comments:

  1. Thanks for posting this. I tend to be a Negataive Nelly and need to good womp in the butt to shift my gears. Thanks for the womp! ;)

    PS---I read yesterday's post and loved it in a 'holy cow, that's real sort of way.' Haunted me for a bit with the reality. Well done.

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  2. The future situates itself in my everyday life, causing me to freak out all the time! Luckily, my calm, live-in-the-moment boyfriend gives me strength to take everything one day at a time and to stop looking so far in the future. I try to find the positive in everything. So far, I smile and laugh everyday. Good luck with the challenge!

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