Circumstances can be joyous or heartbreaking, happy or devastating. Whether or not an experience is fortunate or unfortunate is largely a matter of my perspective and choice.
Inspired: Fortune is a Choice
Category: happiness
Beautiful: On the Eleventh Day of Christmas, Let There Be More Joy
“Remember that your natural state is joy.” ~ Wayne Dyer
It doesn’t take any effort to be happy or joyful. It does take effort to unburden ourselves, to cast off guilt, disappointment, and sadness and that effort comes from not doing these things, from not taking them on. Joy is inside of us and it wants to shine. It wants us to take it on and wear it proudly. It wants us to embody it and spread it around to others. Joy looks good on everyone and we can never have too much of it so cultivate it in yourself and encourage it in others in great big glorious heaps for the holidays and every day.
This post is part of the “Let there be…” consecutive series of Christmas wishes.
Beautiful: Take It From Snoopy and Look Up for a Better Tomorrow
“Keep looking up. That’s the secret of life.” ~ Snoopy
Sometimes things don’t go according to plan. We get disappointed, dismayed, and discouraged by events out of our control. But here’s what’s within our control: how we use today to help us tomorrow.
Every circumstance, and especially difficult ones, teaches us about the world and our place in it. We can use that learning to make better choices and take better actions. They teach us that we’re strong, capable, and adaptable. We fear less because we trust more. We’re secure in the knowledge that no matter what situation arises, we can handle it. No matter where we are today, we have to believe that tomorrow will be better because we will make it so.
Beautiful: Gratitude is the Beginning
The act of giving thanks is powerful. And contagious. When we give thanks for one thing, we inspire others to do the same. And as we see one blessing, others begin to come into focus. Joy is what bubbles up when we realize there is always something to be grateful for. We don’t need to seek happiness. Once we start giving thanks and happiness will find us.
Beautiful: Keep the Spirit of a Child
Have you ever watched a kid at “work”? He or she is so absorbed that nothing else matters. There’s no checking the clock to see how much time has passed. There’s no distraction or boredom or frustration. Just pure focus. They are so fascinated by what they’re doing that they don’t want to do anything else.
I’m convinced that this is the secret to happiness, to be so in love with the work at hand that just the act of doing it is its own reward. In that work we will find our greatest talents, a peace that can’t be disturbed, a joy that can barely be described. That’s what we’re aiming for – to love our work so much that it becomes play, that there is no separation between our head and our heart. Then the feeling of fulfillment becomes not something we pursue. It’s just something that we are.
Beautiful: We Can Have Both Freedom and Happiness
I’m blessed beyond belief that I do what I love and love what I do. It wasn’t always this way. For a long time I had to choose between one or the other. Freedom and happiness don’t always go together. I’ve had financial freedom with little happiness and a lot of happiness with little financial freedom. I had to put myself on a course to figure out what I love and then on another course to figure out how to make a living from it. It’s still a work in progress, day by day, month by month. And though I have regularly scheduled freak out periods that always strike on or around 2am, I wake up every morning raring to go on a path that holds freedom and happiness in equal and high regard. The freak out periods are just fuel to stay the course.
Beautiful: Laugh into the hurt – a lesson in playwriting
Yesterday I went back through the play I wrote over the summer to make some additional edits as I prep it for playwriting fellowship applications. It is a deeply personal work that is layered with lots of bits and pieces of me inside all of the characters.
Many are pieces I am not especially proud of. They are bits that often feel like microscopic shards of glass that I step on over and over again. The hardest part of writing it has been to see the light, the humor, and the release, even in the moments of the play that portray incredible pain and sadness.
People have asked me if it’s a comedy or a tragedy. There are bright spots, and dark spots. It’s happy and sad and happy again. It’s a roller coaster. It’s a different ride for each character because they all know something different. Want something different. Feel something different. They each live the same set of circumstances and yet each has a different lens on them. They’re all trying to heal. They’re all trying to survive the plot and emerge from the other side a better person. It’s a lot like real life. It’s messy, and beautiful, all at once.
Beautiful: The People in My Life
Life’s too short. Period. We’ve got a tiny window to soak up everything this world has to offer and then find a way to give something back to make it a better place than we found it. The trick to really having an impact of goodness? Surround yourself with people who believe in love and compassion and kindness just as much as we do.
Ditch the energy vampires, the negative naysayers, and the people who care more about what they have than who they are.
Find and keep the dreamers, doers, believers, and thinkers close. They will support and sustain you no matter what circumstances life throws your way. Life can be a tough haul from time to time. The people in our lives make that haul easier to bear.
Beautiful: 3 Simple Steps to Good and Helpful Living
“Instructions for living a life: Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it.” ~ Mary Oliver
Within every day, even the hardest, most awful days, there is something wonderful that happens. If anyone asks me what I’ve been up to lately, this is what I’m going to say: “I’ve been out looking for all the wonderful things that make me happy I’m alive.”
Beautiful: Bliss Opens Doors
“When you follow your bliss… doors will open where you would not have thought there would be doors, and where there wouldn’t be a door for anyone else.” ~ Joseph Campbell via my friend, Marita
My beautiful friend, Marita, sent me this quote to help me along my summer of discovery. We worry so much that we won’t be able to create the lives we want or find the opportunities we seek. There’s so much competition. How will we ever be able to stack up against so many others who have the same dream?
The truth is that the road to those opportunities is already available. It’s waiting for us to hop on the path, the path that is made just for us and aligns with our deepest desires. The secret to finding the road is to tap in, to get really clear on what brings us joy, and then choose it. Thank you, Marita, for this needed and appreciated reminder.
Christa Avampato 