How can you be so darn happy all the time, Gayla? I can’t tell you how times I’ve been asked this year: Have you not looked around? Do you NOT KNOW what’s going on?
My mission today, because I have chosen to accept it, is to try to explain the how and whys of smiling in the midst of chaos. Because I do see it. There are days when normal seems so out of reach, and all that we knew is crumbling around us. Yet here I am. Still smiling.
SO annoying. Sorry.
My two cents is that flipping the switch to happiness is just a choice. The power is within—it always has been. For me, looking for it in other places just made it take longer to find. But I did have a delightfully scenic route.
My end result? Peace, joy, and contentment. In a place that’s been there all along—inside my own heart. Kinda like Dorothy looking for a way home when all she had to do was click her heels. For me, I put my ego in my back pocket and got over myself. The change was instant. I realized the world isn’t about me. It never was. It’s about all of us.
That’s what flipped my switch.
Lots of folks have written lots of lists with lots of steps about how to grab some inner peace. First this, then that, then this, then that. Just thinking about following that kind of list makes my head hurt.
All of us are different and I’m here to embrace everything that means. Our diversity is what makes this life, every moment, so special. We’ve each created our own world with our individual choices. That knowledge alone brings a certain peace. Knowing that if you change your choices, your world will change. Immediately.
If you look for what is good, you’ll see the sunny day, despite the cold. The smile pointed in your direction instead of the smirk behind you. Pay attention and recognize what brings joy to your heart, soul, and pinkie toes. Then seek it out. Again and again.
I can promise if you look for what makes you unhappy, mad, depressed, insert your most common unpleasant emotion here, that is exactly what you will find.
But if only it was that simple, Gayla. Just a matter of looking for happy and finding it.
I get it. I looked in a lot of wrong places first. Places outside of me. Not knowing I had the secret in me all along. I gotta tell you, if I had told my younger self that the path to inner peace didn’t involve vodka, cigarettes, or cheeseburgers, I wouldn’t have believed it.
I had to take my own steps—way different than yours, for sure. But here’s the short version of how I got over myself, in case that helps.
- First, I forgave everyone everything. Yes, everyone. If someone hurt you physically, mentally, emotionally, it’s an expression of them and isn’t about you. Never was. Do NOT give other people’s battles any power over you. I mean it.
- Next, I needed to believe that I was worthy of being happy. I know I’m not alone in that battle. Doesn’t matter what you or anyone else said—you are worthy. We all are.
- Most importantly, I had to decide I wanted to be happy. So many people wear their unhappiness like a suit of armor protecting them from the world. Not realizing that losing that armor is the only way out of an uncomfortable comfort zone.
I absolutely understand if that is reality for you right now, I am the most annoying person on the planet. And you probably stopped reading long ago. Or never started to begin with. I get this because I used to live there, not knowing that all I had to do was flip the switch.
But, first you have to decide you want to flip the switch. It’s probably a little sticky, if it’s never been flipped before. I can tell you that once you decide you wanna flip it, your life instantly improves.
So if it doesn’t flip the first time, try again. Whoever said that opportunity only knocks once was just making stuff up.
You’ll look at the world through different eyes—eyes of appreciation. Eyes that look for what is right instead of what is wrong. Despite what it seems like in the world around us right now, there is a lot that is right. So many people looking for good, trying to create a better world, striving to rise above the fray.
They’re looking to reclaim their four-year-old joy. Joy that hasn’t been tainted by anyone or anything. Looking at the world with wide-open eyes full of love for everything. Without judgment. No need to push back.
Our lives are what we make of them. It’s always been that way—it’ll always be that way. Even in your lowest moments. Especially in your lowest moments.
It’s a choice. To decide to make a difference, to be different.
If only all of us decided to connect with our inner joy. Pushing forward with it instead of trying to push back against what we don’t like. That would create the unity of positive energy we need. That unity would be stronger than anything or anyone who fought against it. And I believe that is the next step we can all take.
Happiness is contagious, so flip your switch, and share the happy.
