Tag Archives: allowing

happiness

Life off the leash 

Years ago I put myself on a leash. I tried so hard to be the person that I thought other people wanted me to be, I  stifled a lot of the things that made me me.  Interestingly enough, the people I was trying to impress with by being someone other than myself either didn’t notice or weren’t impressed. Of course now I know that trying to be someone other than who I really am is an exercise in futility, but it took me a little while to get there.

The unfortunate byproduct of all of this sadly though was that over time of not being true to my self, I lost touch with who I really am. Thus years of anxiety, unhappiness, and tears.

One of the great things about this happiness journey that I am on is that I have started finding myself again. Not all of the stuff I’m finding is fantastic, but it’s all really me. And I’m happy about that.

It’s a beautiful day in Southern Alberta today. Apparently we are in a heat wave – experiencing above average temperatures. It isn’t beach weather, but it’s about +5C which for this time of year is pretty warm. I took the boy and the dog out on the ridge for a walk (I made it both times past where we scattered Dad’s ashes without breaking down in tears…. progress!). I listened to Jacob go on and on about the new Star Wars movie and I watched the dog run and jump in the snow.

Dottie looks like I feel. Poor Dottie had to live life on a leash for 8 years until we moved here where she has the freedom to run. She is an entirely different dog with all the freedom she has. As I’m letting go of the idea that I need to be anyone besides who I am (my leash), I’m feeling more and more like she looks.

Happy.

Freedom

My happiness moment today was walking with my kid and my dog along a ridge where my footprints have been hundreds of times before. I used to ride here, walk with Dad here, toboggan on the hill below here, and I know we have lots of new memories to make along the ridge. Off the leash.

Standard
Uncategorized

Funky Bunch

This quote came up from Louise Hay on my Facebook feed earlier today and I’ve been thinking about how this has become true for me over the past few months. If you had tried to explain to me at the start of the year, when I was beginning my Happiness Journey I wouldn’t have been able to understand the difference. Back then, from the state I was coming from, just being able to search for happiness was a big deal. I am still actively seeking happiness, but I have also found that I am able now to follow my joy (or my bliss). Not only have I been slowly able to discover what that bliss is, but I am in the process of giving myself permission to follow it and be happy. That’s been a bigger step than anything else. Allowing myself to be happy, reminding myself that I am worthy of it and that I deserve it.

A few weeks ago I took one of those silly Facebook quizzes “what is your 60s theme song”. Mine was Good Vibrations by the Beach Boys – it actually is my favourite Beach Boys song and one that I turn up every time it comes on the radio. Today, however, another Good Vibrations came on the radio – the one by Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch. Remember them? Awesome times…. Anyway, because I’m me, I started car dancing to it. This was moderately ok while we were on the back road, but once we turned onto the road into town Jacob was horrified with me. But, it’s Marky Mark, I said…. I used to dance on the speakers to this song I said (I was quite awesome in my time). Jacob informed me that some white people can dance, but mom, you’re not one of them. Whatever. It was fun. It lifted my spirits and brought me joy. I did reel it in a little bit so as not to completely humiliate him (it was hard).

Our times to and from school are some of the best parts of the day. It’s an easy drive – it’s a back road I’ve been driving my whole life, and the biggest issue is either deer crossing the road or someone in a tractor – so the fact that I don’t have commuting stress makes a huge difference in the mood of the car. The kids are at their funniest, and I get a chance to really find out what’s going on in their lives.

Today on the way back home I felt kind of like we were a funky bunch as the kids were reaching back and forth tickling each other, laughing, and singing along with the radio. That kind of happiness or joy just happens. I don’t have to seek it out anymore because we are all a lot happier in our souls now, now we can just allow it to flow. But, I still take the time to be grateful and appreciate it. This was my happiness moment today.

Standard
happiness, walking

Melissa and the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day

This morning I woke up feeling like I was staring in my own version of Alexander and the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.

Worst of all, nothing had really happened to put me in this mood. It was more the accumulation of a bunch of kind of icky feelings and yucky stresses that had been building up over the course of a few days and decided to make themselves really known today.

Interesting because normally Saturday is my favourite day of the week. We get to sleep in, we usually go downtown to the market (which I love), we get to hang out and relax. Knowing it’s the one day of the week where we don’t have to do anything,  I try to keep the day as stress free for us all as humanly possible.

But, today I woke up just as cranky as hell. Unfortunately (kidding) the kids didn’t wake up in horrible moods also so I knew if the entire house ended up being a black cloud of doom it would have come from me. There is nothing worse than someone sharing their black cloud of doom with you. They were all happy and bouncy. So, I tried to be happy and bouncy too. Fake it till you make it you could say.

Jenna said she didn’t want to go downtown and just wanted to rest and relax. I took advantage of that extra time and worked out on the elliptical (I’m watching original Melrose Place while I work out. It’s awesome!) and then did some yoga and meditated. Still cranky. Better, but still cranky.

Later on in the day I took advantage of the sunny 17 degree (Celsius) weather because the past week has been more like this:windchill

It was glorious on my path. It was filled with couples walking holding hands (I love all the older couples that walk this path holding hands, it warms my heart), families riding bikes, people rollerblading, and people walking dogs. I had invited the kids to join me but they politely informed me they would rather die.

I walked and walked, letting my brain start to unravel. This walk is the place where my brain lets go a bit and allows balance to come back. I started thinking about the things that were upsetting me. Some of them aren’t just little annoyances, they’re big freaking deals. But I tried to step out of myself and look at them. My intention for the year is the path of least resistance – which I am travelling on by allowing things to come, to happen – instead of white knuckling and trying to accomplish things by sheer force (which oddly enough hasn’t worked for me so far).

So, I picked out each of my issues and ran them through my mind and then said ‘ok, so what can I do to change the outcome of this issue?’ With every single issue the answer was nothing. A lot of the problems aren’t mine that I’m carrying. I’m making them my stress, but they aren’t mine to be able to deal with. There is nothing I can do to change the outcome of much of these issues, and no matter how much resistance, force and energy I pour into them – at the end of the day I’m going to just have to allow them to happen anyway.

Crap, this allowing things is harder than I thought.

Working it though made my body heave a huge sigh of relief though. There is nothing I can do to change these things. No action on my part is going to change any of the outcomes. So, by carrying them with me all I’m doing is creating an unnecessary stress which then will be my problem to deal with. But, created out of nothing.

So, I’m going to let that sh!t go.

Happy moment of the day – day 13 of 44 – happened walking on the path. Aside from just the sheer happiness it brought to my heart to see so many people out enjoying themselves, and the peace and joy it brought me being out in warm weather, there was an incident.  (no matter how this reads, the couple was happy and they were totally kidding around) A couple about my age was walking towards me holding hands having (I assume) just had some sort of disagreement. The man gestured towards Dottie and said “Can you get your dog to attack her (points to woman) right in here (points to throat)” he’s laughing – she’s laughing but has this horrified embarrassed look on her face like ‘honey I can’t believe you said that out loud to her’. I stopped, looked him dead in the eye and said “Sorry, but my dog is trained to only attack men, she’s smart that way.” The lady doubled over in laughter pointing at the man who gasped, giggled a bit and then grabbed his wife’s hand and dragged her away while she was still hooting and laughing. It was awesome.

Standard