I have a dear friend whom I love with all my heart. Last year was not a good year. He broke up with his long time girlfriend (thank God), his business he was running was not flourishing due to the economy and the apartment building he lived in didn’t even have heat at one point and had bird droppings covering the inside (yes this is not a typo - inside) hall and he lived on the fifth floor.
This year a beautiful and smart young lady blew into his life, he decided to get a job and had one almost instantaneously through another friend of his, he found and was accepted for the apartment of his dreams and a part of his business has started generating money without him doing any work to make it so.
What a difference a year can make. It was difficult to watch him during that time but I had confidence that he would make a turn around. Too bad when we’re really in the dumps we can’t see what great things are possible.
But, we can’t just wait in our homes hoping that a great girl or a wonderful job will knock on our door. We have to go out there and be open to new people and new opportunities. We have to risk being hurt and disappointed. If the best you can do today is go for a walk and get yourself some vitamin D, then so be it. Go and take that walk, look around, smile at strangers. I smile at strangers all the time. I’m sure some of them think I’m a lunatic but by now you know I really don’t care. And some of them smile back and our eyes meet and we make a connection.
Time goes by so quickly (it speeds up after you turn 40 - I’m convinced of it) and there are great people to meet. If you focus too much on yourself and your troubles you will get stuck. Go and do something for someone else. It always makes me feel better and puts my problems into perspective.
Positive attracts positive and the same holds true for negative. Create the energy you want to project. Look at the guy who looks like a toad and has all these girls around him. Okay he may be rich but I also know men like this who are just fun to be around. I worked for someone like that. His favorite saying is “I’m not pretty, but I have charisma” and it’s true, all the women fawned all over him. He is still one of my favorite people and he will recognize himself because he reads the blog.
So please go and get happy, even a little happy. If you have any tricks to getting happy, please share them with me. We can all use a little bit more happiness.
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{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
It seems to me that happiness used to be the same as contentment or satisfaction, back in the tougher days when the majority of people were mostly preoccupied with their survival rather than their ipods. Somewhere along the path to social prosperity we forgot about the simplicity of happiness, the uncomplicated joy that is derived from something as trivial as a smile from a stranger or catching a glimpse of a small child asleep in the arms of his parents.
Happiness, it seems, has fallen prey to mass marketing and unprecedented propaganda. It’s been perverted into some kind of an almost extraterrestrial ideal; the forbidden fruit that can only be attained with the right amount of wealth, good looks, and right combination of material possessions. Or so the television and advertisement would have us to believe.
I have found the most happiness whenever I step away from myself and concentrate on how to bring other people happiness. Investing in what is around you instead of feeding this culture of self-obsessed ego-stroking and endless coveting of what we can’t have. In short, we are often our own worst enemies when it comes to happiness. Happiness is truly found in simplicity, but simplicity is not always easily found. You have to let go of all the nonsense sometimes and just breathe.
As for your friend, I’d like to believe that when you’re the “right kind” of person, always devoted to others, selfless and loyal, that eventually, life has a way of swinging back in your favor. In the meantime, as you said so eloquently, you have to go for a walk and take that Vitamin D!
Great post.
Wow Jason you blew me away with your comment, your best ever by far. Extremely well written. I totally 100% agree with you. Thank you.
Thanks for that wonderful post Kay. I loved it. There is so much in life to be happy about. Everyone knows that but few choose to live by it.
I especially like your choice of words for the title of this blog ”Go Get Happy”…because I really feel that one chooses to be happy.
A trick I use to make myself ”happy” or at least less stressed is to listen to classical music. Whether in the car or with my earphones on at work.
Another way to get happier if you’re feeling down, surround yourself by the people you love. We get so busy sometimes and we spend less and less time with these people. My best friend is half way around the world, and I know I am always the happiest when I go visit! (Hope to be able to in December!)
Nour, you are such a positive person. I often look to see what you are up to. You have great depth for a person your age. I’m glad you can find ways to make yourself happy, it is so important. All the best.
very lovely blog and i love all your posts. I will be back to read more
Mich, thanks for the feedback, much appreciated. I really enjoy to hear from my wonderful readers. Please come back often.