This life is hard. You can ask anyone. There are wars, sickness, hate, mosquitos, murderers, sprained ankles, scary movies, disappointments.... The list goes on and on. So how does one achieve that happiness in life that seems so unattainable? That is what I have been thinking about lately.
There are so many books on being happy, and it seems like they are all saying the same thing: happiness is a choice--although there are certainly circumstances that can affect a person's happiness, by and large you get to decide how those circumstances affect you.
I agree that this is true. As Jeremy will attest, I have been known to stubbornly refuse to choose happiness if a situation upsets me. At times, I would rather be miserable than choose to be happy. Which is never helpful in actually trying to obtain happiness. It is a bad habit of mine that I need to fix--but I digress.
I agree that largely you can choose to be happy. But I also agree that some things bring happiness; even if you don't intend them to.
I read one of those many happiness books recently--actually, I read The Happiness Project. There were a lot of good points that the author made in the book. One point that she made was that you can't choose what makes you happy. What she meant by that is that there are going to be things in life that make you happy, and some of those things you can't control.
What makes you happy? Outside of the normal realm of things--family, friends, etc.--I mean. Does knitting make you happy? Art? Dancing? Sushi?
There are a lot of things that make me happy that one might consider unusual: Hearing my nephews laugh when I chase them around the living room, sketching or doing art that makes my fingers messy, playing piano when there is no pressure of performing, sitting in the warm sunshine all curled up with a favorite book, sliding down a ski slope on a sunny day with fresh powder and corduroy, feeling the warm sand on my toes with my family at Bear Lake. Putting on an outfit and knowing that I feel great. With so many things to make me happy, I ask myself: is happiness really so unreachable?
Once I started thinking about it, I realized there is so much that makes me happy--so I ask again, what makes you happy? And how can you reach for the unreachable?
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