Creating Happiness

Sometimes happiness arrives on a sunbeam, seemingly out of nowhere, and unexpected joy takes over our lives.

Other times life is so challenging we wouldn’t recognise happiness if the sunbeam smacked us straight between the eyes!

Imagine that!

Drowning in focus

It sounds like an urban myth but it’s actually true, that what your focus on in life grows stronger.

Focus on fear and you’ll be scared. Focus on emotional pain and you’ll hurt. Sometimes that’s true of physical pain.

Ever had a twinge, forgotten it, realised it’s gone and “ow” there it is.

Focus is everything. Focus on what hurts emotionally and you’ll find more of it. Ever said or thought the fatal “I’ll never find love” or the even worse “No one can love me I’m not loveable”? Then gone through a series of terrible relationships, perhaps even knowing from the word go that you were doing it again?

Your friends probably said so loud and clear. You may even have admitted that they were right with a rueful smile, shrug of your shoulders, listening to that lying little voice that said ‘maybe this time it will be different’, when it already wasn’t.

Happiness switch

Instead of fighting these or similar feelings, just try switching your focus to happiness. Even small things.

A butterfly, a warm day, a puppy or kitten, the cuteness of small babies, a beautiful scent in the air, the roses in your garden, trees, clouds, the moon, the stars. I could literally make this list hours long.

There is so much good if you look for it. You can see the weeds in your lawn or the wild flowers feeding the butterflies and bees.

Do you know how many different types of bumblebee there are? I didn’t. I never thought to look. There are loads. Look at them next time you see them.

Open your eyes, your mind, and your heart to the world. Seek the light in humans, in life, it is there.

Techniques

• Think about good things.
• Retrieve only beautiful memories.
• Watch programmes based on other countries and travel in your mind. See the differences and revel in them. You may even find a holiday you want, or new home complete with job.
• Walk away from toxic people, in fact break the land-speed record (on foot!).
• Get a jar, get some paper and cut it into strips. If anything good happens in a day write each thing on a separate piece of paper and put it in the jar. Open it on the 31st December, read them all, you may be surprised at how many good things have happened. No piece of happiness, no moment, is too small to be recorded. It’s a beautiful emotion to take into the new year.
• Otherwise start a journal of only the good stuff.
• If you see something amazing, photograph it, you could put the images on a board on a wall you see all the time, or create a happiness folder on your phone. Take time to stop and look at it.

Try it. It’s a wonderful way to change your focus without constantly thinking reverse happiness thoughts such as:

“I must change my thinking, I’m such a miserable bugger and this isn’t doing me any good!”

Those thoughts trap you in the misery.

Just use your eyes, ears, and focus to find the good and make that a habit.

Smiles

Deb xx

P.S. If you are a miserable whatnot you’ll never be able to claim that your wrinkles are laughter lines, and you don’t want that!