Thoughts On Happiness

Blog post #15 of 365

I was thinking about happiness yesterday. It doesn't really take much to make me happy and by happy I mean content. There aren't too many days that I would say I am not content at least a good part of the day.

Everyone has something to stress about. I believe I have the normal stresses everyone else does and maybe some everyone doesn't but I try not to let them get to me. I don't dwell on them. Every once in a while I get stuck in a dark place. But I find for me it is a thought process that pulls me in and but also what drags me out.

I have friends who are definitely clinically depressed and I know what that looks like. For them there is no way of "snapping out of it." Although I really wish there was a magic phrase or act that could help everyone "snap out of it!" For those friends finding the right pill or combination of pills usually puts them on a path to contentment or at least out of the dark. This post is not direct at people with a chemical imbalance who need chemicals to get better. I know the truth of their needs. I wish it was different for them.

Yesterday I had two conversations about depression and how everything in your life, both past and present can fold in on you without warning. Past traumas or events (I'll just call them events) can haunt you for a very long time. Even after you have pulled it out and "faced it." Lets face it we are looking at those events in a personal up close perspective and sometimes when you are too close you can't focus on the bigger picture. Every one of us is the product of their upbringing and environment. The way we grew up, the environments we know and those events will always effect the way we deal with other parts of our lives. The question remains why do they knock some people down over and over again while others seem to just "deal with it"? It puzzles me.

I believe happiness is about being content with what you have and where you are. (Again I am not including the masses because those chemical imbalances are a real fight.) It isn't that you don't want more or different, it is just that you have made the decision to be content with where you are mentally and physically. So you work your way to better places and it becomes easier to be content or maybe you discover where you were is better than where you are and you step back to be more content.

That expression "go to your happy place" always makes me giggle a little because I have many happy places. Anyplace with my family, especially my kids and grandkids, is my happy place. I can also be perfectly happy all by myself. I don't need to be with people to be happy nor do I need to be alone to be happy. So my happy place isn't a destination. I have learned to be content wherever I am.

Happiness is directly connected to your thoughts. Kind of how seeing or hearing something beautiful, or when someone smiles at you unexpectedly, or even a kind word or deed can lift your mood. Those events "changed" your mood. But really those events changed nothing but your thoughts about those things changed your mood. More than our thoughts but our reaction changed us.

Those are my thoughts on happiness. May we all find contentment this holiday season and all year long!