Just ME...HAPPY!

Just Me...Happy!

This Blog is Entitled, Just ME...HAPPY! 

It has become very much apparent to me that I have actually BEcome happy again. That's right...I'm HAPPY! In many ways in my life right now I cultivate my happiness; in spirit, in mind (though that does tend to be fleeting at times but I AM working on it), and yes even starting to be happy in body too. Did I mention I've lost 20lbs since my diabetes dx?...eating right[ish] who knew?...lol. 

No, I'm not elated or overcome w/ happiness all the time; the concept of always happy is a misconception and a commercialized lie. I do still have my sad moments yet, today I simply no longer let them control and take over my life as I have done w/ much of my sadness in the recent past. I feel (and when I say feel I mean really let the sadness and tears do the work on my spirit they must do) those perfectly acceptable sad moments, work through whatever it is I need to work through, and then I bid them adieu (at least from the overwhelming stage). Sadness can be overwhelming if you allow it to be but, you DO NOT have to let it. 

You Are NOT A Door Mat

For Me It's A Matter of Choice...To BE Happy

Sadly many never recognize that choice comes into play w/ all of our emotions. More so than not we manifest (make happen) whichever way we want to BE emotionally. Sadness can be an extremely overwhelming emotion though and as it tends to take over the whole of our being (yes even more than happiness...sadly...pun intended) and can be extremely addictive (see my recent bloggage, 12 Steps To Recovery...Not Just for Druggies for help "Recovering from...Just About Anything"). Bottom-line, we DO NOT have to remain sad, we do not have to be a door mat to our sadness or to any other uncomfortable emotions. In fact we don't have to be completely over taken by any particular emotion. Balance (btw that's not a 50/50 thing; sometimes balance is 20/80, 40/60 etc.) is the key to happiness.

Sadness, Within A Happy Spirit

It is actually possible to have sad moments and still be happy in the fullness of your heart. In fact sometimes being sad is actually part of being happy too (remember balance). Yet, Sadness does not have to control your life, take hold of you, or stick around like company that wears out its welcome. We are actually allowed to be sad (it is after all a real emotion) at times w/o it dictating I'm the only emotion your allowed to have. Nope, it doesn't have to be that way at all. Fact is often times we actually invite sadness to come and stay for awhile. We actually do NEED to feel sadness from time to time. Life is a balancing act and the only way to enable emotional balance is to recognize the validity of all our emotions. 

Batman IS NOT Happy 

Sadness Can Overwhelm
Truth? I've been dealing w/ some sadness in my life lately. I've had to deal w/ a lot of changes in my life over the last year; from a major relationship break (and still dealing and occasionally reeling w/ the fall out from that after over a year) to recent new and revised health diagnosis', and some current sad occurrences that I will not go into here (to respect anonymity). I've been down, depressed, and just plain sad. I've shed a lot of tears and found myself (not recently at all, just for info) at times even suicidal. Sadness IS an emotion that can become a struggle; it can and often times will overwhelm...if you let it. The trick is to find happiness and courage in the face of it...to CHOOSE to be Happier.

Today I Choose Happiness

I Choose To BE Happy

Today, no matter what comes my way I choose to BE happy. This choice, and yes it and has had to be a choice, has been perpetuated by many changes I have made in my life. The biggest change is when I made the choice to quit complaining and to begin finding some gratitude in each day and even w/in my sad moments. It's amazing how much this particular change has rearranged my outlook on life. It really is a Law of Attraction thing. In order to BE, to actually participate in your own, happier I have found that I must put out, send out, and indeed manifest the happiness I want in my life. It doesn't come along w/o work. Being sad is easy (well not easy in the sense of how it feels), it doesn't take a whole lot of work to remain in sadness and depression. Happiness on the other hand requires getting up, pulling yourself up...it requires ACTION and it requires faith (see my recent bloggage on how "Faith Without Works Is Dead" about half way down the page). We have to have faith that things can and will get better and then we have to walk in that faith and start to MAKE them better. I did this, and still do this, in several ways. 

The Action of Happiness

In order to be happy in our core...WITHIN...it is important to manifest it. Music helps me a ton. Still to this day my ringtone is Pharrell Williams "Happy". I can be in a seriously down, angry, just in an ill mood and my phone will ring and by the time I answer it I'm already picked up and pulled out of the ill space. Also GRATITUDE is so very important. We have to be grateful in order to get out of all the complaint of our lives...all complaint does is cause more sadness. Ever heard the phrase "woe is me"?

One more thing that I recently found that has been a real help is the website Happier.com.

Happier has one mission "to help you find more joy in your everyday life" and it really is an awesome resource to strengthen happiness in your daily life. Basically, the website (and their cool Happier app) is a daily gratitude journal that people from all over the world post to. You can do your own journaling or read others snippets of gratitude to brighten your day.

In closing I will leave you this from Happier co-founder Nataly Kogan (btw Nataly also blogs regularly on the subject of happiness over at happiness.about.com).

Life is Made of Moments. Choose To Create and Collect the Happy Ones. ~ Nataly Kogan

       ~ Breathing in and breathing out HAPPINESS and yes I'm clapping along!