Talk of happiness is everywhere now. Everyone wants it and, yet it’s very elusive. For me the question was why. Happiness is mentioned in the Bill of Rights, it says we all have the right to pursue it, so we do.
I found a way to be happy most of the time. And it wasn’t as hard as I thought. Everyone has an opinion about how find happiness. I’ve found a way that works for me because it was simple, easy and I enjoyed doing it.
One day while having lunch with a very dear friend, she told me every evening she wrote down at least three things that happened to her that she was grateful for. I couldn’t get that idea out of my head. It seemed simple, and a good way to register thanks.
When I settled down for the evening I used to contemplate my day, but I often focused on the negative instead of the positive stuff.
The driver who cut me off in traffic.
The long line at the checkout counter.
The rain that almost ruined my new shoes.
That extra cookie I shouldn’t have eaten and was certain to show up on the scale the next morning.
Everyday something pleasant had happened to me, but I tended to want to focus on the things that were unpleasant. Those events were zapping my joy and my energy.
But I flipped it. Now every night before going to bed I jot down those events that I’m grateful for, that happened to me during the day. In the beginning it was difficult coming up with three things, but then I started paying more attention to small gestures that I tended to overlook.
I even began to smile as I registered them, thinking to myself that’s something I can write about.
Like the dog sleeping an extra hour in the morning instead of waking me up at the crack of dawn.
Or walking during my lunch hour.
Talking to my mother who lives in another state.
All these things brought me joy and if any one of them happened to me in the course of the day I had a better outlook. But, until I started writing them down I tended to ignore these simple joys.
Some people will think this is too insignificant to be of any value. But I had to stop looking for happiness in big demonstrative ways. Even on my worse days, when I wanted to hit the wall, there was something leading me in the opposite direction. Something that I can say I’m grateful for. It could be a call from a friend, seeing a hummingbird at the feeder, or getting in bed early enough to read a few chapters of a good book.
You see, for me it’s all about perspective and I’ve decided to look at my life through a much simpler pair of glasses.
How do you view your life? Could you use a new way of evaluating happiness?
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