Happiness

I'm just back from a few days away. Very restful days - walking on the beach and lots of reading. It was great, maybe not everyone's idea of how to spend a long weekend, but I enjoyed it.

Happiness can be elusive. One of those things we notice when it's not there, or when we experience it to an extreme.

While walking along the beach yesterday, we came to an area of channels running down to the sea; some were deep enough to mean wet feet, and as I watched I noticed how fast the water ran in those deeper channels.

Very like us I guess. Unless we make an effort it's easy to settle for the same thing - a feeling of not quite unhappiness, but definitely not close enough to what we should be feeling.

There are some things that maybe we can't change - we need to go to work etc.  But there are things we can change.

The past couple of months I've been working in an office in the city centre. I drive to the Park and Ride each morning between 6.30 and 7am to catch the bus. I made a deliberate choice from the beginning to smile and wish the bus driver a good morning as I took my ticket, and to thank them as I got off. Do you know what? Most smiled back and said something nice, but even if they didn't I felt much better for smiling. Not a great scientific experiment, or even original, but I don't care. It makes me feel good.

A few weeks ago I saw this article on where the world's happiest people are.  I did have an irreverent thought as I read the third paragraph - I spend a lot less than two-and-a-half hours a day doing housework!

Finishing on a positive note - reread the last paragraph of that article. The way to have positive experiences is to be positive, be aware of how you're feeling, and how you're projecting that emotion to others.

Okay lecture over!  Just make sure you have a GREAT week.