How To Be Happy

Someone taught me a secret once. How to laugh at myself and make fun of myself and not take myself so seriously. To look at these crazy hurdles life puts in front of you and see them as funny little toadstools that you can just hop right over and if you land on your ass on the other side, then maybe that's HILARIOUS, maybe it doesn't have to be painful and terrible. I am forever grateful to that person. That was the first step in becoming a happy person. Learning how to laugh at myself, especially at the worst of times.

I remember the day I decided to be happy. Somehow it finally got through to me that whenever sadness and sorrow came knocking on my door, I had to tell myself I had a choice. I could either choose to feel the sorrow, and sink into the swamp where it was comfortable, where I knew how things went and how to be, where I could blame everyone else for my problems, where I could feel bad for myself and be lazy and boring and eat mac n cheese and watch a full season of Sex In The City in one day. Or I could challenge myself to feel something different. To try something more difficult. To pull my feet out of the swamp and maybe walk on some granite for a while. To go to a yoga class, or to Hawaii, or even enroll in a massage therapy program.

Some days I could do it, some days I couldn't.
But eventually the days where I could outnumbered the days where I couldn't.

I'd say it took me about three years total to become a person who is happy most of the time. Three years might seem like forever, but in the grand scheme of life, three years is not a long time to spend on figuring out how to be happy and live a happy life. Three years is how long most people spend getting a master's degree. Instead of getting a master's in physics or art, I decided to get master's degree in happiness. I can say that for me it was probably more difficult than a master's in physics, but at least it wasn't as expensive.

Someday I wish I could teach this method to others, but it won't work for everyone.
Everyone has their own secret. You can steal mine though if you want to. ;)