Is this the question of the year, or what?
Happiness can be defined about a thousand different ways,
but what does it mean to you? For me, the
root of my happiness stems from strength in relationships; a feeling of being
connected to the people I love. Don’t
get me wrong, there are many other factors that each plays a part for me as
well, such as success, pride, likability.
(Yes, part of my happiness comes from my desire to be liked. Right or wrong, it is real… and what’s the
point of putting yourself out there if you aren’t going to put it ALL out
there!)
I guess you could say that this entire adventure in blogging
began with a desire to achieve happiness.
I found myself missing certain pieces of my happiness puzzle and started
on a mission to fill those gaps. They
say positivity begets positivity, and I am pretty sure that this is true of
most things, including happiness. When
you create happiness, you feel happier.
Therefore, blogging about positivity and life experiences should help me
to create some positive life experiences for myself, right?
There seems to be a lot of “soul searching” happening around
me these days actually. I am beginning
to wonder if, like marriage, this is a challenge that we need to meet head on
each and every day to maintain success.
It is just so easy to slip back into complaisance though. It is so easy to see friends and acquaintances
posting pictures about their perfect lives on Facebook and feel as though ours pales
in comparison.
I am guilty of this almost every day. I have to remind myself that I am not the
only person living a “real life” experience here. Yes, one of my best friends who is a stay at
home Mom gets to do all sorts of fun things with her kids, and is able to make
time in her life to exercise. She is losing
all the weight I need to lose, she does brilliant projects like bring snow
inside for the kids to experiment with, and quite frankly I am jealous. No, not the “We can’t be friends,” or “stop
posting” type of jealousy… She is
inspiring a lot of people with her journey to healthy living, and I know that
regardless of what it looks like from the outside, she’s moving mountains to
achieve these goals. I’m talking about
the, “How come I can’t be a better parent,” and “better human being” type of
jealousy that lives within us all at different points in our lives. But, I also know that her real life is not
always as fun and easy as it seems.
(Back to the importance of being connected in a real way with the people
I love – thank God for girls nights! – for more on this check out my blog post The Grass is always Greener)
How do we keep from beating ourselves up all the time? And how do we fend off all the nasty little
thoughts that run through our minds as we trudge through another “real” day…
Honestly, I have no clue!
But here’s what I do know – I find comfort in doing things for
others. Sharing my life experiences,
saving my younger siblings (and younger friends – that means you V) from
repeating my mistakes, even if it makes them crazy. I find joy in reaching the “penthouse” level
of honesty in relationships and being able to bare it all knowing that nothing
will change, and more importantly being there for someone else when they need
to share the horrible things that have been raiding their minds all day. It makes me feel happy when I find funny
cards that make you laugh out loud and then actually make it to the post
office/mail box to share the joy with someone else. And it makes me feel proud, that that I have
written something that could impact your thoughts and makes you want to read,
or share, etc.
When I eventually find the answers to all of these burning questions - I promise you will be the first to know! Who knows, maybe my little bro is off discovering what makes the world work on his soul searching journey through Europe?? (photos below)
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