You don’t just ‘be happy’, you choose happy.
Makes sense, doesn’t it? You don’t really just ‘be’ anything, do you? You don’t just ‘be’ strong. You don’t just ‘be’ well organized. You don’t just ‘be’ an astronaut. You have to choose the actions that are commensurate with the goal. You choose to go to the gym. You choose to be conscientious and tidy. You choose to go into outer space. Aside from humanness, ‘being’ anything doesn’t just happen (and, even the human being thing is a stretch for some people). 🙂
You choose happy. How? By making decisions in your life that lead to happiness. You choose joy; you choose fun; you choose uplifting people to spend time with; you choose hugs; you choose peace. You’ll never be able to choose everything in life that you get. But, you get to choose how you respond and you make the decisions that support your happiness. And hey, are you going to be happy all the time? Maybe! But, probably not. That’s what human being is about. The question is really about how you’re supporting happiness in your life.
We all go through tough times. We need those times. Great learning and personal evolution come from those times. When we reach beyond adversity to find the other side, we call upon our greater self to challenge who we are and who we want to be. That is growth. That is evolution. But, there also comes the time, past adversity, past the tough time, when we find further growth by choosing to elevate our Self. It’s as though you bump yourself up a notch and create a new baseline of Self; a new baseline of happiness that has traversed and triumphed over the former. You make that choice.
I know it’s easy to say you’re not happy, for any variety of reasons. But, I challenge anyone wholeheartedly that truly believes they’ve never experienced joy, or had fun, or appreciated the company of a loved one, or felt safe in a hug. That’s the stuff that leads to happiness. Doing those things over and over and over, again. Find the resources in your life to create the opportunities that create those feelings and emotions. The more time you spend in those places, the easier it becomes for your baseline to mirror that; to elevate there. You’ll forget what it feels like to be lower. You’ll forget what it feels like to be discouraged. You’ll forget what it feels like to lack value in who you are. When you spend more time in places that lead to happiness, you take the strain off of your mind to remember what it’s like. You remove the distance between the two points. You live there, together. Through, probably some not great times sure, but surrounded by happiness way more of the time. Surrounded by support, by strength, and yes, Love. These building blocks construct themselves upon each other; they’re dependent upon each other. You don’t work toward one to, only then, work toward the next. You let them work all together; that’s where the true power is. Everyone pulls the rope at the same time. If the first person pulled with all their might, then stopped so that the second person could pull with all their might and stopped to let the next person pull and the next and the next, down to the end, everyone would end up in the mud before they knew it. You pull at all these things together.
Get basic. Read something inspirational. Watch something heartwarming. Give a hug. Ask for a hug. Lay under the stars. Stop and smell the roses. Eat chocolate. Tell someone they’re beautiful. Tell yourself you’re beautiful. Pick up the telephone, dial a number and say, “I Love you”.
I promise, you get to choose all of these things.
Choose happy. Choose Love.
Be Love.
Listen to something fun.
