learning how to be happy

                            

still celebrity stalking

Oh, my goodness. Who is this person (moi), celebrity stalking? As you do when you're supposed to be studying. I also have learnt all sorts of weird and wonderful things that have no meaning nor place in my life. Study-procrastination. I seem to have it down to a fine art.

musings on happiness

I like Joanna Lumley. I "stalked" her. She's not 70 years old with the face and body of a twenty-five year old. But she does look fantastic. I can think of a couple of actresses who look twenty-five but are fifty. (hello Mr Plastic Surgeon) and they keep looking younger. Is this insane, or what?

But Joanna does look great. She is never ill. She has a couple of very sane and normal things that she does. And one is Being Happy. 

So many of us want to be happy, but what do we actually do to be this way? I know that all of us have crosses to bear during our life. Some much more than others. And we are always going to have to deal with difficult people. Surely all of these get in the way of happiness?  And there are also times when happiness is not what life is about. For example, I certainly have no interest in being happy when someone close to me passes over. 

It really does help if we have a fairly happy disposition. It definitely makes life nicer. I have had a couple of times in my life when I could not see nor feel any true happiness within my life. Even though I successfully hid this fact. So, for one of these times, I went to an alternative counselor. It was four or six times. And that was great. It was the right thing at the right time. 

The other time, some years later, I realised that I was really grumpy. I didn't like myself. I was being too affected by other people who weren't nice. So, I did quite a few months of healing sessions, with my teacher of that time. Wow. That was so profound. 

But, and for me this was the main point: I did something about it. All of the new age, spiritual and psychological talk in the world would not have affected me. Why would this be? It's because, for me "talk is cheap" and "actions speak louder than words". In other words, anyone can say "the right words" without any real meaning behind the words; anyone can parrot the latest ways to be; and, often not really doing these things themselves. But what we do, for me, is what gives the real results, and is how I personally walk my talk.

real gems of tips

Ah, the crux of the matter. Joanna suggests that we can practice being happy. And the way to do this, is to turn things around. The example she gave was: if you miss your bus (Joanna lives in London and takes public transport as a matter of course), rather than being negative about it, we can look for something to be happy about, in that moment. Say, she suggested, you look around and see a tree, and say to yourself "what a lovely tree". Immediately you are going to feel happier, rather than being negative because you missed the bus.

So, it's deliberately looking for things to be happy about. Little bouts of happiness. And this does make us feel better, overall.

"happiness is a feeling, but it's the things we do that make us feel that way"

I can't remember if Joanna said this, but I definitely believe it. She said that if we keep practicing this, turning things around, looking for things to be happy/ier about, then we cannot help but become happy.

It's like anything in life. Sometimes we have to learn how to do things.