We all want to be happy. We want to live happy lives, breathe happy air, and interact with other happy people! We want to love our lives. So what are some things happy people do every day? This blog series explores five things happy people do every day. And you’ll be glad to know you can CHOOSE to do these things!! Join us as we explore these five behaviors:
1. Find something to be grateful about.
2. Find your funny bone.
3. Let love ooze out of you.
4. Allow yourself to be playful; i.e. don’t take yourself so seriously.
5. Find something meaningful to do.
If you miss one, visit our iBloom blog to catch up.
Find something to be grateful about.
My daughter was home from college on her spring break. She is such good company. Yes, she leaves her messes everywhere: laundry on the kitchen floor, purse and papers on the table, powdered sugar and drippings from the cake she baked, and shoes and clothing in the family room. But her messes indicate life and activity in our otherwise quiet house. I loved doing things with her throughout the week – a lunch out one day; a movie another; a shopping afternoon; laughter and heart to heart talks.
We had been together one afternoon then we departed ways as she went to a movie with a friend. Okay, so this sounds wimpy but an incredible feeling of loneliness came over me. As I drove home, a dark feeling just reached out and grabbed me. I tried to analyze it… she was going back to school in a couple days; maybe I was feeling my mortality inching by; or was it the mounds of responsibility that I had waiting for me at home. None of it really seemed big enough to warrant this immensely dark feeling.
I’m sure you have experienced that dark feeling; the one that seems to strangle your joy and cloud your thinking. Perhaps it’s accompanied by sobs or anger or despair. A part of you wants to give into it and just spiral on down. Another part wants to fight it, but you just don’t think you have the strength.
Thankfully, I CHOSE to think about what I had to be grateful for. I started praising God. I thanked Jesus for His life. I acknowledged the Holy Spirit at work in me. I thanked the Lord for my marriage, children, car to drive, air to breathe, fingers on my hands, daffodils ready to bloom… anything I could think of that was good and life-giving.
As I CHOSE to be grateful, the dark feeling vanished and I was aware of the presence of the Lord. The loneliness and burdens were replaced with joy and strength. When I arrived at home, I put on my “Life is Good” shirt, looked in the mirror and smiled with delight.
Happy people choose to be grateful – every day. YOU can do it!!
Philippians 4:8 (New Living Translation)
And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.
We invite you to sign up for our FREE iChoose2 journey. iChoose2 Love My Life is one avenue we use to equip you with the essential tools needed to really live a life of passion, balance, purpose, and fulfillment.
Here’s how it works:
1. Go to iChoose2 Challenge and sign
up (fill in your name & email in the box to the right of the page)
2. For the next 40 days, you’ll receive an email from iBloom with your daily
iChoose2 challenge.
3. WARNING: At the end of this 40-day journey, if you’ve really participated in
each challenge, then your life will be different! You’ll be on your way to
really living a life that you love!
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