I’ll be honest and say I’ve been struggling to write. I haven’t written a new blog post in a week, just posting ones written in moment of flash inspiration weeks or months back. To be honest I feel exhausted….and I’m not entirely sure why, can’t quite put my finger on it. I feel tired and uninspired.
And so today I was stuck on what to post no old post seemed good enough. I was looking at quotes and pictures desperately trying to find something to inspire me.
And then I remembered this post that I had written.
This quote has always been one of the most challenging one to me.
Even though I 100% believe it.
I’ve talked before about the quote “life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass but learning to dance in the rain”.
All about making happiness an everyday thing, part of the journey not just something we aim for sometime in the nearby future. But this can be so hard almost seem like an impossibility some days…. Or is it just me? I find it hard to find thrilling joy in the days spent cleaning the house, or those working in school. I find it hard to compare days like those to the days I’ve spent on a mountain in Africa, or a desert in Dubai, hard to see the comparison and then commit to being happy in both. And so happiness begins to see like an elusive ideal, everyday is full of being ‘content’ but not thrilling or joyful persay.
But somehow I must. I’ve talked about the urge to travel (last weeks post!) and I talked about how we can make a difference where we are (again last week post!). Making that difference can also contribute to our happiness in a certain place whether that be a literal place or emotional state. Our state of mind depends on two things I think…..our literal state (where we geographically are) and our emotional state (where ‘we’re at’ in our lives).
I know I can rant and winge about having to go to school and spend my days studying but actually I love where I live. It’s not the crazy life of a city or the quaintness of a village but it’s a home and it as a town has everything I need. I don’t really have much time for people who aren’t content with where they are and do nothing about it. This is your literal destination, discontent with where you are, do something about it, make it a home, search for the things you love about it.
In terms of emotional State, I talked in yesterdays post how you can change that. Andy’s Beat really did that for us. It enabled me to blog, to storytell, something I’d really wanted to do for ages but no idea how to, and the presence of too much fear to risk putting myself out there. It allowed all of us to step out of our comfort zones, but most of all it allowed us to turn a heart-wrenchingly sad goodbye into something positive. It allowed us to not see a definitive end in our goodbye to Andy because it’s in his name that change is happening. It was impossible for Debbie to say goodbye to her little brother, you saw in the video (the love of a sister) but by grouping together with us and inspiring in us his legacy she did something about it, and will always remain inspiring to me because of that. This is not to say you have to set up a charity to become happy!
I don’t have all the answers, I don’t confess to knowing how to turn ‘that frown upside down’. Some days just really are days to be labeled ‘just one of those days’.
But I do know that happiness is not some elusive ideal, it can be found right now wherever you are. If your swamped with work, make a start get some of it done and take a break and bask in your productivity!
If your feeling low pick up that phone and phone a friend!
Get a hug
Force a smile
Make a hot chocolate
The list could go on and on!
Happiness is about your story, in has it highs and lows but it all comes together to make a truly thrilling read. As I spoke about in my post about storytelling!! (scroll back a few days!)
Just remember that happiness is not your destination, not an aim for your future but an ever-present fact. If you look at your own life and see you’re not happy, do something about it! Act on it and do it today.
ANDYS BEAT! 