Saturday, January 1, 2011

The Smallness of Happiness in 2011

I read an article in the magazine Real Simple on the way home from our family Christmas celebrations down south. The article was about happiness. It really has gotten me thinking about my motivation for myself in 2011. There are many...many things that I could "name" as my new year resolution, however I'm thinking about just keeping in simple...I'm going to work on changing the way I view happiness. Simple, right?

Well, I'm not sure how simple it really is, but this is my plan. I don't think happiness is something to be achieved or gained (stay with me!). I think happiness is moments, maybe even a split second emotion from an experience, a comment, or even an achievement (big or small). Happiness is not static. The adventure of life is to savor the feeling of happiness before allowing yourself to move on to the next experience. So, I want to focus my energy on savoring the smallness of happiness and not chasing the "worldly BIG happiness" or the achievement of the "happily ever after" life.

I have the tendency to see the downer points of the day or I find feeling "less than" because of the things I have not finished or accomplished. Or in other terms- I missed the happiness of the day and may even have said," I had a bad day". Really, was the whole day bad or were there moments of tingling happiness that I chose to breeze over! I have decided to savor happiness this year...celebrate the true emotion of happiness. I have a journal I haven't written in for the last year and I am simply going to attempt to right one small "happy feeling" moment in it each day (even if that is the only thing I write). At this point if I don't complete the goal of writing in it everyday, I'm savoring THIS moment of happy excitement of the idea and actually blogging about it! YES!!!!! (I'm also a heart patter for various reasons...so, if you see me pat my heart, I'm may just be having a small bit if happiness!)

HAPPY New Year!

4 comments:

Heather's House said...

I agree with you, girl! Keep it simple. Here's to hoping and praying for a simple 2011. ;)

I love the pic of the boys! I hope you had a wonderful New Years...did you eat your black-eyed peas? :)

Miss u..

Rochelleht said...

That is a wonderful idea. I agree that sometimes we can lose the joy of the day by letting it get crowded out. Love your goal.

Holly said...

I can relate to this SO much. I often feel the whole day has been ruined because of a few ick moments and forgetting to relish the many moments of joy--even though they may have been small and simple--they're still joyful and should be savored.

It's funny too you mentioned your journal--I don't know if you mean your 10-year one, but I realized I had basically given up mine--seriously how hard is it to write FIVE lines each day?!?!--and wanted to kick myself HARD. Grrr... So I'm going back to mine too.

I love that you are a heart patter! :)

Happy, happy new year!!

Lacie said...

Holly,

Yes, it is totally my 10 year journal!!! I wrote maybe through March 2010 and that was it! I agree...5 lines is nothing, however I just haven't done it.

That's what 2011 is for...to try again!