Tag: happiness

are you comfortable being…

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I can trace the beginning of my conscience journey to discover happiness to the Jockey ad pictured below that I saw in a fitness magazine over ten years ago.

are you comfortable being…

For some reason the ad spoke to me even though at first glance, it doesn’t seem to make any sense. I mean, she is sitting in the middle of  what appears to be a forest, in a nightgown!  Really? Why is she sitting there?  Is she waiting for someone?  What is she looking at?  Where is the rest of this picture to tell me what she is doing there? My mind, which I sometimes refer to as “neurotic”, darted here and there searching for the who, when, what, and why?

Then I considered the caption:  “are you comfortable being…”  And away my mind when again: comfortable being what? A teacher? Comfortable being why? My underwear fits? I could only assume; it was an ad for Jockey.

But then I thought about how she is just sitting there, in the strangest of places, with no shoes appearing quite contented and comfortable and I considered the caption without the ellipses and posed it as a question: “are you comfortable being? And that thought was the catalyst that made me realize that some things needed to change because I could not answer “yes.”  I was not comfortable being.

I was uncomfortable being. I had a different guy and I knew it wasn’t going to work out but I wasn’t changing it. I had  a job that I had once enjoyed but it was fast becoming mundane and boring.  I didn’t do anything for fun; I didn’t really know what was fun for me. So, I set out on the journey to be “comfortable being.”

Years later, with a wonderful husband, a new career track doing what I am passionate about, a knowledge of some things that I find enjoyable, and a foot solidly in my thirties (which in all honestly could be the real reason for the improvement), I am more comfortable with myself and who I am.  Sure, there are things that I want to work on and continue to improve but I am getting there.  But the change began with the question. Are you comfortable being? Let me know in the comments/replies below.

enjoy life…

friday’s “secret” –

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I have been thinking long and hard about what “secret” I could post about today and nothing profound has come into my mind.  Not to say that everything that has graced these digital pages has been profound but I thought some of it was a little interesting.

But, I have been reading a lot, and I mean A LOT, these past two weeks.  I have been exposed to two new authors (one digitally and one I met in person) and so far I have enjoyed what they have written.  Which got me to thinking on two points: (1) I really LOVE to read and (2) why don’t I do it more often?

When I was a child, a tween, and a teen, I loved to read.  I read every moment I could spare.  I would even go into the bathroom, turn on the fan and pretend I was handling personal business so I wouldn’t be disturbed.  I think my family knew what I was doing most of the time because after a while, it did not work as well as I wanted it to and my mom would tell me to “stop reading and get out of the bathroom.”

Then I went to college and studied English.  There was a lot, and I mean A LOT, of reading involved and honestly, I was sick of it by the time I graduated.  I didn’t want to see another novel, story, essay, etc.  But when I think back on that period of time, I realize I was still reading, just not books.  I started loving magazines. It was quicker and easier to get info and I enjoyed looking at the pictures.

Now, I guess, I have come full circle and I am into anything: books, blogs, magazine articles either digital or the good old kind that require you to physically turn the page.  And for some reason, rediscovery of this old joy, that never fully went away but that has been awakened anew is making me happy.  My to read list is long on Goodreads.com.  And I am happily thinking about the many hours of reading material that I have ahead of me.

I guess then that Friday’s “Secret”  is this: Remember what you loved to do as a child, and find ways to do it again.  Work puzzles, make model planes, color in coloring books with Crayola crayons, take photos, whatever it is, no matter how silly it may appear to us, do it. Hey after all, you might enjoy it and then you will…

enjoy life…

friday’s “secret” – oh, those self-sabotaging thoughts

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I have been very busy these past few weeks. My friend and client blogs about some of what I have been up to here. But now I am back and better than ever.:)

Today’s secret is about thoughts. I have found that negative thoughts are one of the leading destroyers of happiness for me. I will be feeling good about something, enjoying my life, and then I will start thinking, negatively.

Well, thanks to the friend and client above, I have discovered Marie Forleo’s website and she posted about negative, self-sabotaging thoughts this week. She said,

“Self-sabotaging thoughts are a screen saver that pops up every time you go idle.”

This is so true; most of the time, while I am busy accomplishing, doing, etc. I have no time to think that I can’t do it or that it will be bad, etc. I am too busy. It is when I have down time, when I am “idle”, that negativity rears its ugly head.

I had been thinking a lot about my thoughts and how best to deal with them; to master them, as it were. And even though I have heard this concept before, for some reason, expressed like this, I got it. So, this week, I have been trying to not let my brain go idle so long that the screen saver pops up. My mind does need to shut-down or hibernate. And when I do, that should be an intention and choice to rest and recharge. I do not need it to go idle so long (ie. mindlessly watching TV) that the screen saver of my negative thoughts pop up.

You can check out the full Marie Forleo video here. And in the mean time, tell me what you think and how you handle your negative thoughts. And don’t forget to…

enjoy life…