Continued from:  The Traveler’s Gift- Decision Four

 

The Joyful Decision

Today, I Will Choose to be Happy.

Beginning this very moment, I am a happy person, for I now truly understand the concept of happiness. Few others before me have been able to grasp the truth of the physical law that enables one to live happily every day. I know now that happiness is not an emotional phantom floating in and out of my life. Happiness is a choice. Happiness is the end result of certain thoughts and activities, which actually bring about a chemical reaction in my body. This reaction results in a euphoria, which, while elusive to some, is totally under my control. Decision Five

[For more years than I care to remember, I have fought with the statement that ‘Happiness is a choice’. I fought the concept with growing indignation. I have fought KNOWING I was right and the statement was the wrongest thing ever to bear the garb of words. But I have lost the battle and I am glad. No more am I at war with the world. I am at peace, I am home.

Happiness is a choice. I understood it the day I read the question: Is there anything happening in this moment that makes you unhappy..? I was reading the book at the time, so obviously I said no. The next question was: What makes you unhappy… worry about the future or angst about the past…? Then it hit me between the eyebrows, making me blink my watery eyes. That was the day I saw that there was another way to connect the dots… not that I have connected them yet… or that they stay connected. But now I KNOW there is another way. And I know that the new path I have glimpsed  is a MUCH better path than the one I have been tramping angrily on. The book…? Oh..! The Power of Now by Eckhert Tolle.

I decided that day that if there is nothing in the present moment to make me unhappy, I will be happy. I will not worry about the mistakes I made in the past. There is nothing I can do about them but to learn the lesson I was supposed to learn and then let the past go. I will take whatever decisions I can take about the challenges of the future. If there are no decisions I CAN take, my worrying about it will not help me- so I won’t. You are probably thinking: Easier said than done. Perhaps it is. The truth is, I can never worry about anything for more than two hours, no matter how big a challenge it is. In two hours I get an idea about I can do to resolve the issue. If I don’t, I am too drained and fed up with it anyhow. I decide to listen to some music and tell myself, “The hell with it…!”

Once I have taken a decision- based on whatever I know- I will stop thinking about it. And I will NEVER, EVER berate myself for a decision which looks wrong with hindsight because I have more information now than I had when I took the decision. I will always remind myself, “Knowing what I knew then, I took the best decision possible.” I will permit no further discussion- even in my own mind- about the issue. Because what is done already- is DONE. We can look forward- not backward. And I will keep myself moving forward… or I’ll start sliding backward. And we certainly don’t want to go THERE..!

**I’ll be happy. It is my natural state. It is anxiety, worry and unhappiness that are unnatural. I refuse to squander a single moment of my precious life to it. I will do it no more. 😀 **]

Today I will choose to be happy. I will greet each day with laughter. Within moments of awakening, I will laugh for seven seconds. After even such a small period of time, excitement has begun to flow through my bloodstream. I feel different. I am different! I am enthusiastic about the day. I am alert to its possibilities. I am happy! Laughter is an outward expression of enthusiasm, and I know that enthusiasm is the fuel that moves the world. I laugh throughout the day. I laugh while I am alone, and I laugh in conversation with others. People are drawn to me because I have laughter in my heart. The world belongs to the enthusiastic for people will follow them anywhere!

[Ahem…! Just between you and me… I donno about this seven second thingy… I mean I am sure it is a hot idea and all that… but I’d feel like a priceless ass just laughing my head off so early in the morning… with no rhyme or reason. Moreover, I might scare my son cross-eyed. 😛

On the other hand, if you tell me to start stroking my son’s back while he is still sleepy and start softly talking to him of happy things so that he wakes up giggling with that lovely gurgle in his throat… I could do that. Actually, I DO do that… takes me fifteen-twenty minutes to wake him… but it is time well invested. 😀

‘Enthusiasm is the fuel that moves the world’. Enthusiasm is a powerful positive force which can make any burden light… send a blazing beam of light on the darkest path… lift the gloomiest heart. You cannot be enthusiastically sad. You just cannot. Nor can you be enthusiastically miserable… or angry… or depressed. You CAN however be enthusiastically happy, good spirited and very enthusiastically have a positive outlook on life.

**Whether people will follow you or not, one thing is for sure. No matter where you are going, no matter how long the road and how tough the going is, with laughter in your heart and a smile on your lips, you can at least keep yourself in good spirits. After all, pulling a long face never made your load lighter- did it…? It never did mine… 😀 **

Today I will choose to be happy. I will smile at every person I meet. My smile has become my calling card. It is, after all, the most potent weapon I possess. My smile has the strength to forge bonds, break ice, and calm storms. I will use my smile constantly. Because of my smile, the people with whom I come in contact on a daily basis will choose to further my causes and follow my leadership. I will always smile first. That particular display of a good attitude will tell others what I expect in return. My smile is the key to my emotional make up. A wise man once said, “I do not sing because I am happy; I am happy because I sing!” When I choose to smile, I become the master of my emotions. Discouragement, despair, frustration, and fear will always wither when con- fronted by my smile. The power of who I am is displayed when I smile.

[My smile too has been my calling card and I never knew it. It is only a few months ago when I connected with a long lost school chum that she told me: ‘I knew it was you when I saw that smile’. 🙂

The power of who I am… and who I choose to be… and who I ought to be is displayed when I smile. I will be happy… and I will prove it with a smile which is a slap in the face of defeat. How can one lose when one smiles like that…? How can the heart harbor thoughts of defeat and dejection while the face bears a happy smile…?

**I never see any harm in a smile. While it is true that challenges are not overcome by a smile alone, it is equally true that they are not overcome by looking unhappy and beaten. A smile is the reassurance to the heart that the mind is at work and will suggest a solution soon. 😀 **

Today I will choose to be happy. I am the possessor of a grateful spirit. In the past, I have found discouragement in particular situations, until I compared the condition of my life to others less fortunate. Just as a fresh breeze cleans smoke from the air, so does a grateful spirit remove the cloud of despair. It is impossible for the seeds of depression to take root in a thankful heart. My God has bestowed upon me many gifts, and for these I will remember to be grateful. Too many times I have offered up the prayers of a beggar, always asking for more and forgetting my thanks. I do not wish to be seen as a greedy child, unappreciative, and disrespectful. I am grateful for sight and sound and breath. If ever in my life there is a pouring out of blessings beyond that, then I will be grateful for the miracle of abundance.

[Gratitude…! There is NOTHING in the world better able to bring a smile to your lips… to lighten your heart… to make you pull your socks up for another long haul… than GRATITUDE. It is impossible to feel beaten or hopeless with gratitude surging through your veins. Things could be better… sure..! But why do we always forget that they could be so much worse..? Being grateful is a deliberate conscious choice. I look for things to be grateful about. And no matter how black the day… how bad the set-back… I have always found at least 20 things I can be grateful about.

Then one day I made a pact with myself. I decided that whenever I feel depressed, I’ll sit down and remind myself of 10 things for which I can say, “Thank you God..!” Only after that I’ll go back to being depressed. 😀

** Who said you are not allowed to trick yourself..? He he he… **]

I will greet each day with laughter. I will smile at every person I meet. I am the possessor of a grateful spirit.

Today, I will choose to be happy…. (in 2011. Happy New Year to YOU…!)

The Traveler’s Gift- Decision Five