Happiness starts with your thinking and what you tell yourself every day

 

Happiness doesn’t start with a relationship, a vacation, a job, or money. It starts with your thinking and what you tell yourself every day.

Typically, when I ask someone “How are you?” they reply, “I’m OK.” But this morning the attendant at the gas station replied, “Oh, I am absolutely marvelous!” Her enthusiastic response made me smile, so I asked her what was making her feel so marvelous.

She continued, “I’m healthy, my son and daughter are both healthy, and we all have access to clean water and food and shelter and so much more. So I don’t have any good reason not to be positive.”

The difference was simply her attitude and her choice of words. She wasn’t necessarily better off than anyone else I spoke to this morning, but she sure seemed a lot happier.

For many of us, I suspect that sometime between the innocent delight that we start out with in life and the grim acceptance of grown-up responsibility, we slip into an unintentional and subconscious mindset of burden that fuels lots of negative self-talk.

Just think about how you tend to talk about your average day. Suppose you have a daily to-do list you’re working through, and a friend or colleague asks you what you are doing with your day. So you reply, “Ugh, I have to respond to these work emails… and I have an appointment with Dentist… and I have to go to my daughter’s school after work… etc.”

Talking about your responsibilities in this way does nothing but make them feel like a drag, a heavy set of weights dropped upon your shoulders, things you have to force yourself to do – all of these burdensome “have to, have to, have to” chores.

But what if you simply changed your answers from “I have to” to “I get to”?

It’s just a one-word difference that can make a big difference in how you think, and subsequently feel and behave. Give it a try. Because the truth is, if you don’t like something, you can either change it or change the way you think about it. And the latter is often the best first step.

Each and every day, the real battle takes place in your mind. If you’re defeated in your thoughts, you’ve already lost. So why not set yourself up for a win today? Be reasonably positive.

Love light & peace ~ Hari Om Tat Sat ~ Om Namah Shivaya