Have you ever smiled at a baby and had them smile back at you? Have you ever seen them giggle and coo for no apparent reason?
What about that little girl with the rubber boots on jumping in that mud puddle? Happiness IS!
Babies and kids are naturally happy and often even full of glee. As life progresses and we teach them structure and rules and such, they too start to lose the spontaneous acts of being happy… just being happy for no reason!
As we get older it seems we forget that we don’t need a reason to be happy, we can just choose it. We are so used to stimulating ourselves from the outside through the use of media, videos, food, conversations, causes, etc. and we forget that happiness is an inside job. We can just be happy. We can choose to be happy regardless of all of the ‘stuff’ going on outside of ourselves.
Choosing thoughts has been something I have been teaching and practicing for many years. And now at this point in my life (my cancer journey), it has come into play even more so for me. If I don’t CHOOSE happy thoughts, I suffer A LOT! And I don’t like suffering!
One of my favorite books of all time and one that I refer to a lot is Bronnie Ware’s “The Top 5 Regrets of the Dying”.
There are 5 top regrets people have at the end of their life in general and the number 5 regret she learned from people dying is “I wish I had chosen to be happy”!Wow! I think that is my favorite of the 5. You can read more about all five here:
Now, I am not going to tell you that this is easy to do, but I can promise you that the more you do it, the easier it gets. This is probably why I am finding it quite easy in a situation that many people would find it very challenging in and rightly so! I have been ‘practicing’ this for awhile so it is easier for me because of that, but one can start at any time which is the good news!
NOW is all we have..
Choosing Happy means we let go of as much stuff as we can in our mental mind. An old memory? Tell yourself that it is the past and no longer exists but only in your mind and let it go. You need space for HAPPINESS NOW!NOWis all we have. Don’t let the old crap take up space and take away from now. Remember life is short….
Someone says something to you that you feel is hurtful or offensive? CHOOSE not to personalize it and let it go as fast as you can and move on. The faster we can do this, the more content we are. The longer we hang on to it and dwell on it, the more it grows and the more pain we feel.
Get Inspired to CHOOSE HAPPY!
I hope that you get inspired to ‘choose happy’ today and as much as you can. I know that for me, it is GAME ON! I want to squeeze as much JOY as I can out of my time left here on earth… and I hope that you do too!
“Find something that makes you happy and go for it”.
I think sometimes we overcomplicate life. We just do.
Take today for instance. How about we just find one thing that makes us happy for right now… for today… and we just do it!
Whatever it is just do it.
Maybe it’s making a piece of toast with your favorite jam, just because, or saying “NO” to a request from someone. It can be anything.
For me, it was writing this blog post because it makes me so happy to write. I also took time out to take a picture of the icy rocks today here on the Big Lake aka Lake Superior. The weather turned cold today and there is an interesting misty thing going on and it made me happy to take a picture of it!
Ice forming on rocks on Lake Superior December 14, 2020
There is no right or wrong here folks, but if you can, just go RIGHT NOW and do something that makes you happy and DO NOT complicate it. EnJOY! 🙂
Maggie, no matter the temptation, you no longer think or say, “I’m anxious,” “I’m hurt,” or “I’m angry.” Because each of these feelings are choices, that can be unchosen, instead of reinforced. And you will be amazed, The Universe This was my beautiful note from the Universe the other morning and I quite loved it.…
Good morning everyone! I wanted to share with you how I felt when I read these words from Byron Katie. But before I do, just to share some good news, I figured out another technological hack and here is the audio link from SoundCloud which is exactly the same verbal content as this written blog…
Yesterday I was both humbled and honored to be interviewed by Louise and I think that our interview turned out fabulous. I really hope that you enJOY listening to it as much as we did making it! I think that there is a lot of insight into life in general in this interview, so the…
Here is my little car that I love. I call it The Joy Mobile. The Joy Mobile is getting festive today…. spreading Smiles and Joy wherever we go. I learned a long time ago you take Joy with you. You choose Joy and Happiness and you take it with you as you go about your day.
This#5 top regret of the dying from Bonnie Ware’s book “The Top Five Regrets of The Dying” pretty well sums it up for me:
#5
“I wish that I had let myself be happier.”
This is a surprisingly common one. Many did not realise until the end that happiness is a choice. They had stayed stuck in old patterns and habits. The so-called ‘comfort’ of familiarity overflowed into their emotions, as well as their physical lives. Fear of change had them pretending to others, and to themselves, that they were content. When deep within, they longed to laugh properly and have silliness in their life again.
When you are on your deathbed, what others think of you is a long way from your mind. How wonderful to be able to let go and smile again, long before you are dying.
Life is a choice. It is YOUR life. Choose consciously, choose wisely, choose honestly. Choose happiness.
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I love this and this has been one of my fav books of all time. People dying teaches us about living. I wish you Joy today and always and if you see the Joy Mobile around town, give us a wave or a honk. 🙂
Maggie Holbik.com is a Certified Life Coach and Certified Nutritionist who reaches for Joy and Happiness as much and as often as she can, because Why Not? 🙂
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