appreciation
December 2008 
What's the easiest way to become happy?
Posted on Nov 18th, 2007
by 
synonym for light
synonym for light
This is in Response to the Questions and Reflections for November 18, 2007:
breathe, smile, love
or
breathe, love, smile
or
smile, then breathe, then love
or be interested in something or someone. or contribute to something. or laugh for no reason. or look around and see all the things/people I have to be thankful for-- starting with my ability to breathe.
or listen to nina simone's "feeling good" -- that almost almost makes me smile.
mostly it's just a matter of deciding to feel whatever emotion I'm feeling and then let go of it and choosing to be happy again. mostly.
Access: Public
I think part of the reason this question throws me is that I'm one of the fortunate people who default to happy anyway. I think maybe you are one of those too?
But I know that for some people it isn't the same.
And I know that I only have the tiniest glimpses of what that must be like.
Love Nina Simone. Great choice for smile-provocation.
I think are right.
I'm not so darn happy today– well I am right now, but I woke up saying “wah!! I don't want to go to work for the 6th day in a row and I don't want to do the yoga competition and I feel fat and unflexible and difficult and overwhelmed and the house is a mess and waaaaaaa.” but I'm better now. I told adam to call work and tell them I was dead, that way they couldn't possibly make me come to work. hahah. He made me a capuccino instead and told me to get over it and get out of bed. (this was 6pm). After I drank half the capuccino I was fiesty, almost mean spirited. he commented, “this is what I get for bringing you back from the dead with capuccino.”. I said, “haven't you seen all those movies where they bring someone back from the dead? It's NEVER pretty. You're supposed to leave the dead to rest in peace, not pester them with demands to come back to life.”
and so it goes. I'm not always happy and sometimes I can't even think of my tricks of how to get out of foul, pestilent, mean moods, but I think you are right. I think it's my default, because now I'm at work and now I'm fine. even cheerful, now that there's not a soul around to be affected one way or the other.
ah life.
As one of the boys in my class says: “I'm happy when there's nobody around I can be mean to.” A fourteen year-old's definition……
hmmm. interesting. very, very interesting. :-)