There is a mockingbird that likes to perch outside my bedroom door each morning and squawk mightily. This, despite that it’s 6 am and, due to the pandemic, I can sleep in. This bird does not care.
I noticed that on some mornings, I am grateful and happy to hear the bird.
Other mornings, I am annoyed and flirt with the idea of shooing it away.
Same bird. Same noise. Same time.
Different me.
You have a choice: wisdom or woe. I don’t care about your childhood. Don’t use your horrible childhood to excuse your behavior. Let it go. Ultimately, you have a choice between living a life of wisdom or woe.
Caroline Myss
Every time I come home and walk through my door, my pitbull-mix dog Opal runs to greet me. She has done this every time I’ve walked in the door since I adopted her on February 16, 2013. Every. single. time. She loves me, this is true, but she also does not tire of routine or sameness. She doesn’t get jaded or bummed out because she’s been missing me all day.
I walked into a bank today and the young man who greeted me was very enthusiastic about everything: greeting me, asking me if I needed help, guiding me to my appointment, and then going on to greet others. I later learned that he just started working at the bank. Do you remember being new at your job? I do. I loved everything about my day. Nothing could get me down. Everything excited me.
Buddhists have a saying: “Happiness is a choice, not a result.”
Sometimes our most important challenge is to keep life new and choose to not be jaded by things.
I started to lose my way when I learned that our school superintendent did something (it has not been revealed to the public) and will be fired and be paid out several hundreds of thousands of dollars. We just passed a tax hike for education. I’ve been pretty down about it, thinking that certainly, the next expenditure for education will not pass because of this. I got angry thinking about all those tax dollars going to this one woman and not to the thousands of students in our district. But I can’t worry about that. I need to choose to be happy because I have students in front of me now.
I am more productive when I’m happy than when I’m frustrated/disappointed/sad/angry.
“There is a huge amount of freedom that comes to you when you take nothing personally.”
Don Miguel Ruiz, The Four Agreements
One could be grumpy, but why?
You don’t have to be “moody.”
You don’t have to be ultra “proud” of your children, your spouse or your possessions.
You don’t have to react to everything…or anything.
You can choose to live within the band of happiness no matter the context or situation.
The next time something great happens, say, “thank you.”
The next time something “bad” happens, say “thank you.”
This is how to be fully present and truly happy all of the time.
“The range of what we think and do is limited by what we fail to notice. And because we fail to notice that we fail to notice, there is little we can do to change; until we notice how failing to notice shapes our thoughts and deeds.”
R.D. Laing
We have the capacity to feel energetic all the time. You don’t need chemicals or a special diet. We are naturally full of energy. The reason we lack energy is because we create blocks which stem from our ego.*
For example, let’s say you wake up in a great mood. You go to work, full of energy. You want to make this an outstanding day! You plan on getting a lot done. A client calls you, berates you and demands some of his money back. Now you feel indignant against this person. You take what he says personally and call him names (after you hang up the phone). How dare he demand things outside of the contract? How dare he accuse you of trying to pull a fast one?
You run your fingers through your hair. You don’t feel like moving forward because you’ve lost the energy to get a lot done today. You just want to fume and you walk to your boss’ office to complain and have someone agree with you.
There goes a day of productivity.
If you want to maintain your energy, you need to clear the blockages. Don’t take things personally, don’t feed your ego’s desire to vent and draw attention to itself. Let the drama go. You can choose to go with the problems, ego and power drain, or choose to remain energetic.
Kismet 