Perception is everything. Happiness is a choice. Optimism is the way to go. I truly believe these things.
No matter what the situation, there is happiness and joy to be found if you can only pull yourself out of the misery long enough to see it. In life, we can choose to focus on all that goes wrong and as a result be miserable, or we can choose to focus on all that goes right and as a result be grateful and have a happy heart.
Tragedy escapes nobody. Everybody is going to lose a loved one at some point. Everybody is going to have some sort of traumatic upbringing or young adulthood. Everybody will experience mistrust, disappointment, will have some sort of health battle, will struggle with money (even the wealthy, their struggle is just different), will battle in love, and the list goes on and on and on. The difference between the people that are happy in this life and the people that are miserable is that the happy people choose to look for the good in every situation. They see the blessings that come from the tragedy.
They see the outpouring of love from friends, family, and strangers after losing a loved one and are thankful for the time they had. They recognize that their traumatic upbringing had beauty in it somewhere. They recognize that people that are human and make mistakes, and some people are meant to stay in our lives and others aren’t even if we think we want them to. They recognize that there can be good to come from their health battle, whether it’s helping others through the same thing or forcing themselves to have a healthier life or learning to appreciate everything they do have. They recognize that both poor people and wealthy people have financial burdens but know that money doesn’t equal happiness. They recognize that it’s better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all. The see the rainbow in the storm. They see the silver lining in the clouds. They see the beauty that surrounds us each and every day in every situation. They live with a grateful heart.
Sometimes it’s hard to see this beauty. Sometimes we are blinded by the darkness. But that’s when we can turn it into a game. See how many good things you can count in a situation. Once you start to focus on the light, the darkness begins to fade away.
Do you have a grateful heart? Do you need help seeing the beauty and blessings of a particular situation?
Right on! Even those with Chronic Depressions or who are Bi-Polar or have another mental illness can see blessings. Their darkness can be profound to the point of suicide, but if one person can help them see a little light in their dark world, they can make a dark world have hope. Whatever the situation, each and every day has a blessing. Some days we just have to look a little harder.