There is a blogger called Galen Pearl who writes a blog called 10 Steps to Finding Your Happy Place. I recently discovered her blog and am loving it. Here are her 10 steps:
- Give yourself permission to be happy.
- Decide if you want to be right or happy.
- Give up the delusion of control.
- Feel your feelings.
- Make haste to be kind.
- Judge not.
- Practice compassion.
- Forgive everyone.
- Develop an attitude of gratitude.
- Be here now.
Although I never put it into these words before, it is the way I have tried to live.
At times, I argue with my husband, my daughter sometimes talks back, I have carried balances on credit cards and, frankly, I eat waaaaaay too much chocolate. I have suffered betrayal and loss. I've had some pretty hard times. I don't talk about those things here, though, or anywhere really. In general, I call my sister or my mother, and complain some, get a little tea and sympathy, then try to get over it. Not avoid it, but not dwell on it either.
Of course, things go wrong in life. That's not what's really important. What defines us is how we respond to those circumstances.
