I want to thank my friend and fellow author Mary Kennedy for her wonderful blog on resiliency! It’s the perfect segue to something I was discussing with a train friend on the ride home the other day, namely choosing happiness.
As Mary so aptly noted in her blog, “Ruminating and drowning in negative thoughts will not help. Taking action will.”
And one action you can take is to choose to be happy. Some might say that it’s easy to say that, but doing it is a different thing. It’s hard.
Yes, it’s hard. I know. For the last few months — yes months — I’ve been letting a lot of things pull me down. Things over which I don’t even have any control (which being the control freak that I am only makes it worse).
But here’s the thing – I can continue to allow these things to keep me down, but I know that’s not the real me. The real me is usually optimistic and believes that there is goodness out there. That it is possible for good things to happen if (1) I imagine them happening and (2) I work at making them happen.
So, I’m choosing to be happy. I’m going to stop investing time in those things that are pulling me down and refocus on those things that make me happy and over which I have control.
You may be wondering how my talk with my train friend brought this about. Well, we were both discussing how certain things were bothering us and he mentioned a man he once knew. No matter when my train friend spoke to the man and asked how he was, the man would say “Exceptional” and always in an upbeat tone. That consistently made my train friend feel good.
That man chose to be happy and if you think about it, just conveying such positivity to others can raise not only their mood, but your spirits as well.
So if you’ve been like me lately, down and a little depressed about the state of things, make it a point if only for today to be happy. Think about all the good things going on instead of the negative. Try being upbeat and see if that doesn’t change how your day goes today.
If it worked to make today better, try it again tomorrow and then the day after that.
Hopefully you’ll find that by choosing happiness you will improve how are you are feeling.
So to get you started – list one negative thing you are going to put out of your mind today. Or better yet, embrace something that makes you happy.
I’ll start – my daughter. She always makes me feel good!
