OPPORTUNITIES TO BE HAPPY

Lots of opportunities to be happy come along in an average day. They arrive without interference, just by chance.

HAP means chance. From it we get words like happenstance, haphazard, and happiness.

Why does it sometimes seem so hard to be happy?

How often do you hear someone say 'Why do so many things go wrong? It's just my luck for this to happen to me!'

Crucial in all of this is where we decide to focus our attention.

How many times do you hear someone say 'Why do so many things go RIGHT?

Yet in any average day far more things go right than go wrong. We just take all those things for granted and zoom in on all the difficulties, disappointments and errors. In doing this we may blame fate, luck, the gods, or just ourselves and other people for inadequacies and imperfections. We select a gloomy place to stand and then complain about the view.

The solution is to become aware of how we are reacting and to see that we have a choice. Our inherited and essential negativity bias often needs a little supervision! We can pause the unhelpful, unhealthy and misleading reaction and choose where we will focus our attention. If we do this with objectivity, dropping much of the baggage that the ego carries, we create the space for awareness of all those potentially happy moments that would otherwise pass us by unnoticed. We can then let them in, be with them, enjoy them, then let them go, knowing that more will come along if we are receptive.

They will most likely be little moments. Simple moments of pleasure, friendship, connection, curiosity and beauty. Fleeting, but they all weave together in a tapestry that colours and enriches our life however long or short that may be. Little treasures in every day.

Of course, we can't expect to be happy all the time. There is much hardship, heartache and suffering in life, and there is more to life than just being happy. Nevertheless, we all like a bit of happiness, and it's good to know that it's all around us if we look for it and don't expect the impossible.