I’ve made and immediately forgotten too many New Year’s resolutions to be a believer in them, but the start of a new trip around the sun still makes me reflect on changes that I want to bring about in my life.
One thing that started popping into my mind toward the end of last year was the realization that I often forget to be happy.
It seems that just about any time I want, I can access happiness—or at least I can access a greater degree of peace, calm, well-being, and emotional positivity than was present just a moment before.
It works like this: I’ll be doing something, like working, reading, or browsing the web, and I’ll become aware that my experience is a bit flat or tense. I’ve become focused on what I’ve been doing in too driven a way, and this is diminishing my sense of well-being. As soon as I realize that’s been going on, I start to pay greater attention to my present-moment experience, relax my body, and allow my heart to soften. And instantly I feel happier. Often I feel much happier. I mean, really happy.
There may be unpleasant feelings present, but over the years I’ve learned how to accept those. I can have unpleasant feelings going on—sadness, or anxiety, for example—and still be happy. It’s a process, though. I have to spend a few moments with the unpleasant feeling once I notice it, and let it be, and then it becomes less solid and weighty, and it’s surrounded by a mind that’s content, or even joyful.
How easy it is to access this happiness is surprising. It’s like it’s always there, waiting for me to experience it. But I forget.
So this year I have the intention (I wouldn’t quite call it a resolution) to remember to be happy. I’m training myself to check in with my experience at least several times an hour in order to see how I’m feeling, and to note whether it’s possible for me to let go of the flatness or negative affect, in order for happiness to arise. I’ll be working, reading, or browsing the web, and silently ask, “How are you? Can you relax a little? Soften? Open your heart? Let go of that drivenness? Can you let yourself be happier, even if just a little?”
I’m suppressing joy all the time. I just have to remember not to! I wonder if that’s true for you as well?
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So personal and open, thank you for your kind mirroring of myself. Yet again it was very helpful.
I wish for us both to accomplish this plan this year.
Love.
Thank you. I hope we both keep remembering!
I seem to have started along that path a little now. I become aware of sadness, normally in meditation, and just sit with it and “feel” the sadness. Often my mouth will contort into a very deep frown. It seems that allowing the sadness to be felt causes it to dissipate. Catching myself “in the act” during daily activities is still a work in progress.