Happiness is a Choice
by Steve Beckow
Posted on January 18, 2024
I came across this column on my daily read. I totally agree with what she says, though I’m just a newbie in the area Sarah points to.
Happiness is a Choice
Sarah Perron, Frontline News, Dec. 5, 2023
https://frontline.news/post/back-to-center-how-can-anyone-possibly-be-happy
Your level of happiness is 100% up to you. It does not have to depend on anything external — not the state of the world, not your spouse, not your children, not your job. True happiness can’t be about what’s going on outside of you. If that’s how you look at it, you will constantly be running around, desperately reaching out for something to be that thing that makes you feel okay. And that “something” will always ultimately disappoint.
You’re right — this world is a hard place to live a lot of the time…terror and tragedy abound these days…spouses forget that important thing you asked them to do…children misbehave…your boss doesn’t acknowledge all the hard work you’re doing. If we make these people and circumstances responsible for making us happy, we will be waiting a long time. This doesn’t work.
True happiness is something you create within yourself. How? I can’t answer that for you, but I can tell you some of the things that work for me:
- Connecting with something higher — Deepening my relationship with God and belief that things happen for a reason as part of a higher plan for the world.
- Practicing self care — Making a conscious choice to allocate time in my day to things I enjoy that make me feel nourished.
- Choosing my thoughts — Making healthy decisions about how I want to think about myself, others, and situations in life. Focusing on empowering ideas.
- Getting into action — Choosing to focus on ways I can do something positive and helpful to others, especially when I feel unhappiness or despair creeping in. This also helps me feel good about myself.
What could this look like for you? How could you shift away from the feeling that the circumstances you see in the world are preventing you from being happy, and find a way to own the process of creating some happiness for yourself?
Yes, extremely difficult things may happen in life, but it’s amazing when we can realize how much of our experience of those hard things — and of life in general — is actually up to us. We don’t always have control over what happens to us, but we can always control how we choose to view it, and harnessing that power can change everything for us.
The more happiness you choose to create, the more it keeps growing. I truly hope you can allow yourself to go on a journey of discovering what brings you true happiness that stands the test of challenging times!
