We all want to feel we are fully alive and adding to the world’s joy. We want to believe we are helping others and not draining the world. But our unhappiness does drain the world.
We all have sadness, grief, tragedy, times to go through that are difficult. That is life. Many of us come from dysfunctional families, some worse than others, but we all have our wounds and scares. We all have times when getting out of bed in the morning is hard, or when calling someone to get together seems like more trouble than it’s worth. We all have times of depression. We all have times when we must have a talking with ourselves and pick ourselves up and get back into life.
If you are beyond being able to pick yourself up, please reach out for help from a professional therapist. If you are unable—or unwilling—to do the work to be happy, you have stayed in depression too long. Please reach out for help.
For the rest of us who are being a bit lazy about creating happiness, now is the time to take responsibility for your life. Happiness is not something that just happens until we’re open to receive it. It may take work to get to that point. The more often we are happy and the longer we are happy, the it easier it becomes to be happy.
Our thoughts and emotions create grooves in our brain. Like water that runs to the nearest groove in the earth, our thoughts and emotions flows to the grooves we’ve created. The more we create happiness, the more grooves of happiness we have, so the easier it is to move into happiness.
Sometimes we have to create games to play on ourselves. For example, you might tell yourself you do not have time to be depressed right now, but you can be depressed Friday at four o’clock. Or you can constantly remind yourself that in any situation you are in you have three choices: you can accept it, leave it, or change it.
We have to find pleasure in the small things in life that are free such as the sunset, the beauty of an autumn leaf pile, or the colors in a soap bubble. Every day we must remind ourselves over and over that our intention is to be happy. We have to keep an attitude to face every situation in life as a way of growing, not as an obstacle.
Happiness is not always easy to obtain, but the more you allow happiness into your life, the more it becomes a way of life and the easier it is to obtain. The more you experience happiness, the more it comes to you. One day you’ll wake up and say, I’m really happy and have been for a while. In fact, I don’t remember being unhappy it’s been so long. Yippee!
This is the day to make a choice. The choice is yours and only yours. Choose happiness.
You deserve it.