Happiness
It is my belief that there is never a wrong time to get curious about how to help blissful moments show up in your life more often.
Why not focus your lens and become attracted to those things that make you smile more and create joy in your life? An exploration of happiness in the context of a coaching conversation with a client gave an interesting response. 'Happiness sits on the periphery of your vision. It's not tangible or easy to grasp and when you try to connect with it... puff it's gone'. This defeatist and fear fuelled view, helped me to clarify my feelings on this subject. My feisty inner child rebelled...
Choosing Happiness: A Bold Decision
boldly choose happiness, grab it by the horns, look it in eyes and demand its presence every day
That very day I decided that I wanted to strike a deal with happiness. I promised to tap into a mindset and activities that would help me to nurture happy moments. On reflection, this collusion has helped happiness to show up for me, even in the face of worry, doubt, and fatigue. Since making this decision, happiness and I have began to collaborate; we co-created a plan and shook hands on it!
If thinking about happiness feels intangible to you, I strongly advise you to take advice from my dear pal Ali Turner. Having been a free spirited adventurer, Ali gave birth to a daughter with complex challenging needs. From this moment her life changed and so did her perspective on happiness. Ali taught me that in the face of adversity, magic moments continue to be all around you every day. It is your job to notice, magnify and embrace them. It could be a warm smile to lighten a dark day, a connection with a stranger, a sunrise that takes your breath away, an inspiring book or learning something new. Another great friend Janice described her happiness stemming from her decision to teach herself a new skill. She and another fellow friend, Scott McDonald, learned how to build a Canadian canoe. This resulted in a creative and fun project and many happy moments canoeing on the lochs of Bonny Scotland with their families.
Simple Measures of Happiness
A more simplified measure of happiness came from Joe, an 80 years old with a wicked sense of humour and a great attitude to life. In order to measure happiness, Joe does the timber test on a daily basis. He told me 'I woke this morning with my arms by my side. I felt around the sides of my body and noted that there was no timber. I concluded that if no timber is present, I am alive and for this reason I choose to be happy.' This simple and humorous measure of happiness & gratitude brought a smile to my face. Perhaps for you, having more happiness will mean noticing the magic moments all around you, expressing gratitude more, doing activities that you love or even learning something new.
As part of the process of choosing more happiness in your life I encourage you to become a keen and curious observer of the moments that happiness shows up in your life. Pay attention to what it looks and feels like for you. Notice what experiences, activities, environments and people enable this for you. If you feel up for a challenge, why not take this a step further. I propose that you prioritise one thing this week that brings joy and do it more. Then choose something that no longer serves your happiness and simply stop doing it.
Why... because the place to be happy is here and the time to be happy is now.
Commit, set an intention and make it happen... I dare you!
