Choose Happiness!

My dad always told me that happiness is all about perspective. Yet, being the stubborn, all-knowing person I was – I assumed he was wrong. How does that saying go about assuming? Something about you and me. Well I was that something. A big one. ‘Cause I had assumed WRONG.

From what I’ve learned this past year happiness is totally a choice. Every day we choose whether or not to be happy. It is COMPLETELY up to us!

You might be thinking that sounds “too simple” or “if it were that easy I’d be swimming in happy” or even assuming that I don’t know what I’m talking about.

Well, stop your assuming. We all know what it does [if you don’t, ask your best friend, they’ll tell ya]. I know that nowadays we don’t trust anything that sounds “too good to be true” – nothing is that easy – but this, my friends, is the god’s honest truth: happiness really is that simple. At least in concept.

However, in application it’s not at all as easy as it sounds. I am not what you would call a naturally positive person, I’ve struggled with depression and anxiety since my early teens. Though it was easy to be positive for others I was rarely, if ever, positive when it came to myself. And I realized I was being crazy – I was literally doing the same thing over and over and over and OVER and still expecting a different result. I was hoping that I wouldn’t have to change but that someone or something would come out of the wood work and change everything for me – to MAKE me happy. But that’s not how life works.

So I took a chance and tried something new, praying for a different outcome. It took a lot of soul searching, research, trial and error, but eventually I realized that my dad had been right all along: I had to change my perspective and CHOOSE to be happy.

I’ll be real honest with you: happiness is hard. It requires constant conscious effort. You literally have to retrain your brain to focus on the positives in spite of the things that go wrong. And, unfortunately, things WILL go wrong. Sad things and bad things will still happen. I wish I could tell you they wouldn’t, I wish that you never had to feel pain ever again as long as you choose happiness. But I can’t.

However, here is what I CAN promise: your world won’t change, but YOU will change and your VIEW of the world will change. The struggles you face will be easier and sometimes you won’t even see them as a struggle. You will find things to laugh about, to smile about, to sing about even at the darkest times. Trust me, I’ve experienced this change and I am grateful every day for every step of the journey (especially the hard ones) that brought me to this point. I had searched my entire life for this elusive “happiness”, wondering where the hell it was. But that’s the thing, happiness isn’t a location, or a destination, or something fleeting – it’s a state of mind. Once I took the 1st step and CHOSE to be happy EVERYTHING changed. I have never been happier in my entire life, and I’ve only just begun.

So why not take that first step, right now, to at least open yourself up to choosing happiness. Just think about it. WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO LOSE?

Here are Bittersweet Serendipity I will share with you techniques I’ve learned and researched that can help you practice happiness. I’m not an expert but I would be a horrible person if I kept what I’ve learned to myself. All I ask is this: support one another. For those of you who already know the truth of choosing happiness, please share with the rest of us what you have learned: coping mechanisms, stories, hope, anything you have to offer. And for the rest of us who are barely learning, don’t forget that you are NOT alone – you will always have a place here to find insight and encouragement.

Stay HAPPY my fellow hopefuls!