Sunday, February 7, 2010

Making Happy Thoughts Happen

There are people who wake up happy. It's a gift, I'm sure, but it's possible. The rest us, well, we have to work at it.

Frankly, I've been working at it pretty hard. There doesn't seem to be a moment when I'm not working, period. Either I'm studying or I'm thinking about studying or I finished studying and I go to sleep. Somehow, in all this work, I haven't managed to actually be happy.

What is happiness? I think it's a contentment you feel that makes the world around you seem so wonderful. I have felt it. It's great. I want to feel it all the time.

So I thought I would begin by making happy thoughts happen. Like, hey Nana, you're gonna make it. Pretty simple, but effective. Makes me feel happy. And that happiness filters down to everyone I meet and interact with. It's like a Divine Presence that envelopes you. You feel safe and secure. It's a feeling we all crave, and sometimes use synthetics to get.

Happiness is getting high on life. It's about connecting to the Creator inside you. It's best summed up as, think good and it will be good.

One final thought on happiness. The Rebbe ReShab* taught us to go over our obstacles. Don't deny they exist, just overcome them in an open, revealed way. I think that's one of the keys to happiness. Whatever is holding you back from getting what you need, face it directly and deal with it that way too.

Not bad advice. Now all I have to do is put it to good use.

*The fifth Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Shalom Dovber Schneerson, z"l.

2 comments:

  1. In the words of a dear friend, after I told her she looked beautiful at her son's Bar Mitzvah, "Do I have a choice?"

    Love you!!!

    ReplyDelete