An interesting question came up in my family last week and it’s one that has come up frequently over the past few months. “Do we have to be happy all the time?”
I’m sure that in the case of my family that question came up because I spend a lot of time sharing what I am learning and teaching others to practice in my work world - deliberately making the effort to be happier on a daily basis. I’m talking about being mindful and careful to pay attention to one’s thoughts and one’s emotions so as to more adeptly create more positive emotions than negative ones.
Now we all know that family members aren’t always interested in persuing the same passions we have, and often tire of hearing us talk about it. It’s just so hard to contain myself. I’ve come to really enjoy the biochemistry of positive emotion, and knowing optimists live longer than pessimists (9-10 years longer) seek to find optimistic ways to look at situations in life as they present themselves.
Does one have to be happy all the time. No, of course not. Life is full of a full range of emotion and we are build to experience them all (Just like our taste buds are built to experience different tastes - hot, salty, sweet, bitter.) Personally I’m choosing to feel my feelings - all of them. However, I’m spending less time in the negative ones than ever before because I know that the long term effective of negative emotions on my body take too big a toll. So I am discovering a variety of techniques that work for me and others to make the shift.
I’ll be addressing this question again in my “Tip” next week.
Have a happy day. JoAnna
Posted in Uncategorized | Tags: Happiness, Mindfulness
