Happiness Is Infinite
The only person stopping you from being happy is you. Within your mind, you always are processing, defragging, uploading, and downloading thoughts. During thought, you may see that person cut you off in traffic. It may be some co-worker wronged you and you’re still upset by it. It may be a missed chance at fixing a relationship. In all these cases, you continuously decide how you feel about it. What if those thoughts did not matter at all? What if you could think of awful moments and see them as a good thing? I don’t mean Stockholm Syndrome, turn a bad into a good. Instead allow yourself to feel happy about learning something or how an unpleasant experience created a positive and appreciative lesson. If we choose what we suffer from, then why not do the same for happiness?
While scrolling through social media, a short video clip of a woman sits at center court of a high school or college game. You can hear talking over the PA system. She appears to address suitors. Yep suitors, like some old dating show. The audio clears up. She continues, “If I was sad, what would you do to cheer me up?” Overall, not interested in the clip, I thumb right through it. I assumed a lot of people would choose to give her something like a gift or recommend her favorite snack or movie. Hours later, my intention popped in my head. The only person stopping you from being happy is you. I processed it later as if I were asked that question.
“You choose what makes you happy. Never rely on others to fix you. It’s on you and your thoughts to be happy. Though tough days do suck, the effort pays off. What if we talk about something that makes you proud?”
Guess I’m not getting a lot of dates with that answer, but it’s honest. No one is responsible for your happiness, except you. There's no finite level of happy in the world. Every person, right now, could be happy. All at once. As silly as it sounds, Peter Pan had a point. “Just think of happy thoughts and you’ll fly.” So, when I sit and think about the things that make me happy. I sometimes come back to some of the unpleasant events in my life and look at them as an opportunity to say, “If this bad thing didn't happen, these other good things that I learned out of it never would have come to be.”
Since happiness is infinite, you can find joy in the joys of others. So, when I start to feel depressed. (Yes, I still feel these things.) I start to ask about other’s good news. Sometimes you will get the “nothing is good news” answer, or maybe people will breeze right passed it with a lame joke. That’s okay and all, but it speaks volume for the happy thoughts they actively think about. If they are thinking happier thoughts, they might share a recent victory over something tough. They may start to share the next exciting thing that is set up for the future. But how often do people share the hardships over happiness? I did/do it too. I could easily talk about how bad my life is over the good things. Why would I need others to process that? Is it to feel like others could never do as I do? Why should I ever take my difficult day and shove it onto someone else? I just get met with the other person’s suffering. Now they are stuck thinking about the same dreadful things.
Since most people seemingly brag about how tough their life is, it’s so easy to fall into concentrating on the sad things and trying to remove them. You don’t have to remove them. Just adjust your perception of them. Instead of thinking that I hate my job, I can think of what job/career I wish to have. What am I actively working on to get closer to that? What things create more joy within me? How am I becoming more than what I currently am? Why is this “thing” a terrible thing to me? Over time, your ability to see the good in things starts to arise.
When I get met with “What good news do you have?” I approach it often with something I learned. Even stupid things that should be common knowledge. I share the failure attempt and what good came from going through it. I share want I wish for the day/week/month/year. I share the next event I’m eager to get to. I share the proud moments of change I find within. I share the good news I heard from others. I share the happiness you feel. Happiness is infinite. So, what is stopping you?
