It is wonderful how once something grabs my attention, I start stumbling over it everywhere I look. Remember when you bought a new car, and suddenly you were seeing that model all over the place?
What is marvelous is how our unconscious brain works so hard to give us what we ask for. So now that I'm seeking to give my life a happiness tune-up, I find the elements of my research every day, even when I'm looking at other things.
I was on the Forward Motion writers forum yesterday, and there was a discussion of flow. I was reading a political blog this morning, and there was a discussion of forgiveness. At that point I tripped over the mother lode of happiness tune-ups at the Happiness Project Toolbox. I'm s l o w l y working my through The Rough Guide to Happiness by Dr. Nick Baylis - slow because I need to meditate on the points he makes and connect them to my own life and decide how to implement them.
It is O.K. to be happy, and to want happiness. Happiness is not self-indulgence or narcissism, or ignoring the needy world. Happiness is not synonymous with pleasure, and wanting to be happy is not being a pleasure-seeker. Somewhere in my Calvinist background ancestors, I think happiness got a bad reputation. Let me be very plain: happiness is not "un-Christian" and it is not selfish. I wish you a truly happy day, engaged with your inner self, and the people and the world around you. I hope you find something to do where you enter flow, and that you savor it later.
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