How to Be Happy Step One

😀 HOW TO BE HAPPY STEP 1 😀: from an eternal optimist with absolutely no education or training in psychology or the like..

Stop playing the victim. No really stop. You’re all totally killing my vibe with your “poor me’s”. I know, you have been through a lot. So has everyone else. You can choose to stay in that cycle, but psst.. let me tell you a secret that I’ve learned... Negativity compounds. (Aka: “When it rains it pours”.) Stop the cycle of compounding negativity by making a conscious choice to stop playing the victim and turn your heart and mind instead to this powerful, underestimated little word called “Thankfulness.” It is impossible to be thankful and a victim at the same time. Impossible. When you shift your mind to what is GOOD in your life a funny thing happens... you begin to realize that those mountains that you built out of molehills are so freaking small in the grand scheme of all of the blessings in your life. And you begin to see your own selfishness for even allowing your molehill to take any of your energy. You feel spoiled. Loved. Not #Blessed, but REALLY deeply blessed.

The president of MAPS Coaching at KW International says that “What you focus on expands.” Truer words have never been spoken. She speaks of it in a business sense, but it holds real truth in other areas as well. If you focus on good, the good expands. But if you focus on the bad, trust me when I say the bad will expand. BUT here’s the question I’d encourage you to ask yourself: Are the things in your life REALLY that bad? Or is it your perspective that is making them FEEL bigger and badder than they really actually are?

I’d venture guess it’s the second...because I’ve watched mothers with babies on their backs picking trash from the side of the road to eat so they could feed their children. Sober as a judge. And Smiling. I’ve also watched a Bangladeshi orphan at an orphanage with hundreds of other children, sleeping on basically a layer of blankets, with no electronics and no idea or worry of what the future may or may not bring, gaze at and gently run her fingers along my freckled white hand with amazement, close her eyes, pick my hand delicately up to her lips as though it were porcelain, kiss my hand, and then stare at me with her big beautiful eyes and her wide smile and muster the words that she had practiced for days with the help of the other orphans at her school: “I-luf-you-Auntie.” Perspective, y’all. 🤯 I’m not saying you don’t ever deserve a little self pity or comfort from others. Not at all. We can’t win all the time. Life is incredibly difficult sometimes. Don’t LIVE there. Don’t tattoo yourself for life with “VICTIM”. Take some responsibility and step into your calling. Cause we need you to. And also cause you’re killing my vibe. 😉

Shout out to Lexy Chambers and Justin Chambers for letting me post this sweet pic I took of Miss Ellie Bellie, aka biffle, aka biff.😍 The sense of wonder in her face just made it too perfect for this post!