FIND HAPPY - Brittlestar’s Weekly Newsletter - Issue #46
This year there are LOTS of kids stuck in women’s shelters as they and their families start on creating a better life. YOU can help brighten their Christmas morning by checking out ChristmasWishTree.com and checking off a few things on their wish list.
FIND HAPPY
I was driving downtown one day in 2013 and as I made my way past the main intersection (we live in a small town) I realized that I couldn’t remember the last time that I laughed.
That’s a dismal thought, isn’t it?
Not being able to remember when you laughed?
I then thought further and it occurred to me that worse than not laughing, I hadn’t SMILED in ages. Like, an honest happy smile.
Now… I’m no psychologist or mental health professional. So, trust them over me, obv… but here’s what I did to remedy this sad situation (pun intended - I’m a professional ‘comedian’ and I legally can’t just leave that not so risky double entendre there without acknowledging).
I decided action was required. If happy wasn’t coming to me, I would have to mount a mission to find it.
I had LOTS of reasons to be happy of course. Myself and my family were all healthy. We had shelter and food.
But I also had LOTS of reasons to be unhappy. I was hurtling into my forties. My dreams and life goals had seemingly transitioned into memories. I was essentially broke. Our house was dangerously close to foreclosure and we had eaten lentils every goddamn possible way God would let us.
But not being happy isn’t always about real world things on the outside. It’s often inside your head. It’s chemical. It’s electric. It requires a catalyst. A spark.
So, I decided to find happy.
I leaned into the things I have always enjoyed; Music, Art, Creating.
That kinda worked but I needed something new. Something that would strike the match and ignite happy for me.
That last sentence ended like sex slang. It wasn’t. Honest.
Luckily, I found happy in creating videos. It wasn’t immediate. It was more like when you watch people start fires by rubbing two sticks together (again, not sex slang, honest).
The more I created, the more happy I found.
Then, someone told me my creating happy for myself had helped them through a rough time.
That was the mother lode (again, not sex… what is wrong with you people).
I had struck a deep reservoir of happy.
I’ve been mining it ever since.
I think happy is all around us but for a myriad of reasons, it can be hard to find sometimes.
Again, I am NOT a mental health professional and I know this account of my journey can sound trite, but maybe this tactic could be part of your journey.
Why not try to find happy?
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Author finds happy. Also pictured: Shawn Mendes finds fame and fortune. Oct 2013