There are times coming off the path on my journey has led to unexpected, positive events. Recently meandering on a different path has not been a good experience. It has affected my happiness, an emotion I believe we are capable of controlling. But I was delivered a gift yesterday, which was the impetus for changing my direction. It wasn’t a big, beautiful package with a bow. Instead it was simply an image posted in the Facebook timeline. It was the image above.
Getting off the path has led to me being surrounded by tall grass and weeds. As a result, my vision has been obstructed and I have been overly concerned with the weeds at my feet. This simple image reminded me of two very important things:
- Angry people I come in contact with do not control my own happiness unless I allow it.
- A busy schedule only affects the time I have for myself because I make that decision.
After seeing this image yesterday, I decided to re-read some of my posts which focused on happiness. These posts were a helpful reminder and part of starting down the correct path again. I hope these five posts can have the affect on others that the image on Facebook had for me.
Top 5 Posts on Being Happy
- How Are You Traveling Through Life?
- Gratitude: A List of 10 Blessings in the Face of a Challenge
- How to Make Good Things Happen
- A Recipe for Happiness
- 60 Seconds of Happiness
It truly is a choice and today I choose happiness.
What about you?
I’m not convinced we have total control over our happiness. My recent choice to confront a life long battle with anxiety, mild depression and ADHD has shown me there are a few things outside of my control. I but I do get to choose what I di with how I feel. Seek help, seek peace, seek acceptance that not everyday will be sunshine and roses, but that makes the sunny days all the better.
I disagree with you and you actually prove my point. You are choosing to seek happiness by battling anxiety, depression and ADHD. Right after my separation, when I was overwhelmed by the depression, I chose to be happy by seeking out medication that was needed for my acute depression.
So to you I say, congratulations for seeking out happiness. It might be a harder-fought battle to attain for you than for some, but you are seeking it out nonetheless.
This really is such a core issue. I’m still in a bad place, if only I could just choose to have the depression vanish. I know it’s not that simple. I certainly agree with the principle of what you say. Perhaps the easiest way to describe is to say my head agrees to choose happiness but my heart won’t listen, so the two are at war, which creates even more stress. I guess the head has to keep trying and hope to defeat the heart with perserverence. You’ve shown it can be done 🙂 The road ahead still seems long.
The road seemed long for me too Chris. Please keep moving forward day by day or minute by minute. Whatever it takes to move you forward. I focused all my energy on finding joy in the day and sometimes the days were so bad it was literally a minute or two.
I have faith in you that you can pull through this and you can always reach out to me. You have my email address–use it.
You must have read my mind… I was just thinking about this today! I was thinking, why am I not happy more often if it is indeed a choice? I should take control of my happiness more often, shouldn’t I?
I have to keep reminding myself to choose happiness. Although I did better yesterday – instead of focusing on the two things I burned beyond recognition while making dinner, I focused on the two things that came out really, really good.
Yay for positivity.
There you go! That is a great outlook.