Tell me… what are 5 things that caused you to feel happy today?
5 things?
You’re joking aren’t you. 5 actual things. 5 moments where I wasn’t stressed, tired, weary, feeling like im in survival mode, drained, exhausted, pressured, stressed, thinking, over thinking, beyond overthinking to the point of being somewhere else….
Happy. Really?
5 things?
Yes.
5 things.
Can be as utterly small as you like, can be as tiny or insignificant. it doest matter, all that matters was in that moment it caused you to feel happy.
Yes, even that bumble bee that flew past you, the rainbow appearing behind the clouds, the way your dog looked at you, it just made you happy. For a split second.
5 things.
I didnt realise it was possible either.
I didnt realise Happy was actually something.
Duty – yes.
Obedience – Yes
Doing the right thing – Yes
Surviving – Yes
But Happy? Really?
Happy.. oh no, that’s not for me.
And you know what… when I didnt realise happiness was for me, I couldn’t give the opportunity for happiness for other people – without being critical, without feeling jealous, without being able to enjoy it, for others. I say these things about me, because I also wonder whether this might be more than just me too.
Let me ask you a different question.
What about this… What if I told you that happiness was a choice?
A choice you can make now?
What if you could have the power to choose to be happy?
What if this was a powerful choice, yes a choice, that you could make?
Because, being miserable, playing the victim and projecting blame on others is equally a choice too. But lets focus on Happy.
When asked on 31st January each year something that makes us happy, it might well be the relief that its the end of January.
But at the start of January, dont we say ‘Happy new year’ – Happy..may this year be full of happiness for you. It doesn’t take long for Happy new year to turn into the drudge of January. Happy seems to have disappeared from view. A long time ago.
But 30th January, 4th February and every day in July can be happy too… cant it?
What would it take? Madness? Courage? Determination?
What might we notice when we make this choice?
One thing I noticed, is that when I tried to make an active choice to be happy….
I got a lot of opportunities to practice this.
For instance, the very day I bought this book
Which was in a bookstore, in San Diego Airport on 4th January, as I left my soul mate Christelle and I headed back to the UK.. in a specially curated Happy section for the new year
It was also the very moment that as I paid for the book and left the bookstore, that I realised that my already cancelled once, now delayed flight was delayed even further. Literally on the board as I left the bookstore. So, all the feelings about leaving Christelle, and now delays.
Immediate practice to choose my response.
This delayed flight, led to another cancelled flight, led to overnight in Seattle, another day of travelling, and eventually back to the UK and my flat quite a few hours later. Circumstances giving me choices.
What did the longer journey give me the opportunity to do – practice happiness…and to read about it. The universe is like that, gives us gifts in which to practice.
There’s many things I began to notice after the day I decided to intentionally focus on my own happiness. Another is that it is very easy to forget. Hence why its taken 31 days to write this.
Yup, the road of good intentions is littered with distractions, as well as challenging situations.
Ive needed reminders. So..
A few days per week so far this year, because I haven’t remembered every day, and I did buy myself a note book, that I haven’t filled in yet either… Ive asked Christelle the 5 happy things question, and she’s asked me it back.
It’s almost like retraining my own mind, soul and spirit to notice the happy moments, the happy moments occurring in the now and everyday.
I can hear the resistance. But what if I surrendered to this? If happiness is not now..when might it be…really?
I was one who was a critic of those who said that being happy was possible or real or a purpose in life, I get it.
But what spills out of us when we’re not happy? Who is this good for? Just our ego and anything or anyone else?
What if… this:
I believe the very purpose of our life is to seek happiness. That is clear. Whether one believes in religion or not, whether one believes in this religion or that religion, we are all seeking something better in life. So I think, the very moment of our life is towards happiness…..
Dalai Lama, 1999
So… about those 5 things..? (why not write them in the comments below)
Give it a go. Seek Happiness. Open up yourself to its possibility
Happiness, deep inner happiness is possible.
Its closer than we think, actually its changing how we think.
Happy New February.
Happy you.
Happy me too.
References
The Art of Happiness – Dalai Lama and H Cutler 1999
The Courage to be Happy – Kishimi, Koga 2016
The Power of Now – Eckhart Tolle – 1999
James Ballantyne 