Winston Churchill said, “I like things to happen; and if they don’t happen, I like to make them happen.” So can we make ourselves happy by making things happen?
Perhaps there is not one particular path to happiness, yet happiness is the way, meditated Thich Nhat Hanh.
Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote:
Happiness is a butterfly,
which when pursued,
is always just beyond your grasp,
but which,
if you will sit down quietly,
may alight upon you.
I have decided to choose happiness for myself. That’s not to say that I’ve been suffering from a terrible depression under which I could not be happy. I’ve chosen happiness all along, sometimes to my own detriment. How could choosing happy be destructive, you might wonder? When it’s the choice you make despite something giant and terrible in your life–when it’s the choice you make to be blind to the bad things in your life rather than dealing with them.
But I’ve worked through many toxic demons from my past in the last few years, and I think the fog is finally lifting. I can now bravely say that I have a lighter heart, a brighter future and am making smarter choices when I say that I choose happiness.
For 2013, my goals are fairly simple in terms of individual pursuit of happiness:
Practice being more compassionate toward others.
Meditate more.
Spend more time doing less, rather than wasting time doing nothing.
Compassion plus listening. Yep. 🙂