Hello everyone!
I took a few days off but here I am back once again as promised for another round of my babbling, sticking to my resolution!
I’m discovering that I love thinking about Happiness. I want to sit in it for a while and explore all the different angles. Since I started my year defining happiness and impediments to happiness, I want to now move on to discussing how to get there. I want to start with a disclaimer. Everything that I am writing are my opinion only. Practiced by yours truly… You may disagree and have some other ideas in mind. If you do, I invite you to write about it and share with me. I am open to all ideas and suggestions.
There are many ways to skin this cat… I am going to talk about one of the ways to achieve a state of happiness today.
I don’t know about other people but I know that whenever I am unhappy, the hardest thing for me to do is to own up to my own role in my state of “unhappiness”. I think that we, as human beings, in general, are prone to some degree of selfishness. There are two types of selfishness that I’ve observed. The first type is when someone is selfish by choice because they want what they want and don’t give a hoot about the impact it has on others so long as they get what they want. The second type of selfishness is unconscious. It is usually camouflaged under a cover of needs/wants/desires of something that is not currently there for some reason.
I think that the energy of selfishness is a negative one regardless of the form in which it manifests. It is one of the biggest culprits that stands in the way of achieving the state of Happiness.
I had been guilty of both forms in different times of my life. I remember a time when I was a child… I sat on the floor in the middle of an airport refusing to leave until my mom bought me a very OVERPRICED ukulele in the window… that is an example of the first form of selfishness.
My adult self rarely find myself in that particular state of mind. During times when I had been selfish, it is usually consciously done. Once upon a time I was very upset about a situation. In that situation, I wanted something to be there that was once there but somehow got lost in time. I tried to recreate the moment by attempting to orchestrate details associated with that feeling that was missing. I forgot that I was dealing with a person with an independent mind and needs. It took a while… but it literally hit me in the midst of a dream. I suddenly realized what I was doing and was able to acknowledge and rectify the situation. Now…. how did I rectified the situation? Read on…
I learned two valuable life lessons: I, myself am solely responsible for the state of my Happiness. No one and nothing will impact me unless I allow it to. No one had ever said that it was easy to reach that state of Happiness that we all so desired. For the people, things and situations surrounding me, that in some way or another, impact my state of mind, I learned to ACCEPT.
Believe me, it is one of the hardest things to do but when you actually get to that place of acceptance, it is amazing! The moment I “ACCEPTED” a situation/a person/an object for what it is, I felt free and all my anxiety/stress/sadness melted away. The only way to achieve that state is by giving love, truly unconditionally. I had learned to love myself a while back but giving love “unconditionally” is something totally different. I did exactly THAT. I “ACCEPTED” things as is in reality (and not a reality under my colored lenses), I gave love unconditionally and released! I released everything along with the fear that comes with the vulnerability resulting from giving unconditionally. I leave the rest in the hands of God.
If you are going through a similar obstacle to your happiness, try “ACCEPTANCE”. I promise that you will be HAPPY you did (no puns intended). I would love to hear from you!
Until next time, I wish you all a serene and happy day!