Ask an empowering question

A few days ago, I had dinner with someone who said he was filled with gratitude and was happy every day. It was uplifting to hear that! About the same time, I learned that I’m going to receive a sum of money that’s more than I expected and sooner than expected. I was happy! Those incidents got me thinking about things that make me happy.

Here are 10 (plus two) things making me happy today.

1. Receiving unexpected money. Always a treat! It will have a happy home.

2. At some times in my life, that money would have been a lifeline. There have been years when I was so close to the edge that I didn’t know how I was going to pay the rent or buy groceries to feed my children. I’m happy to be reminded that I no longer live that close to the edge.

3. A third thing making me happy is noticing how much better off I am at this point in my life, compared to some earlier years. Being happy makes me grateful and being grateful makes me happy.

4. Spring is actually here. Even if we have another blizzard–and we could–the days are warmer.

5. I’m making progress on a project that’s more complex, more challenging and more time-consuming than I or any of the people involved expected. Not the first time and possibly not the last time I’ve had this experience. But visible progress makes me happy.

6. I’m glad to have lived long enough to know the project will be completed, and it will accomplish its purpose, maybe even better than any of us originally imagined.

7. The days are getting longer. I’m looking forward to our long northern evenings when gorgeous sunsets linger until after 10:30 p.m.

8. My brain is getting re-wired! I’ve been reading Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself: How to Lose Your Mind and Create a New One by Dr. Joe Dispenza. I’ve been fascinated for a while by books and talks about how the brain works, and this is adding to my understanding.

I’m working my way through some exercises he suggests. Sometimes I think I can actually feel portions of my brain changing! It could be my imagination, but who cares? It’s making me happy.

9. I’m going to a concert in a few days. Music always uplifts me. The anticipation is making me happy.

10. For more than 60 years, I’ve noticed that whatever I want to learn about, or whatever would be helpful, shows up at the perfect time. It might be an experience, a song, a person, a movie, a book, a conversation or a surprising idea. The older I get, the more I am in awe that life unfolds exactly as it should–though sometimes with me kicking and whining, and other times me not realizing in the moment that it is exactly as it should be.

Plus two, that I thought of while I was writing the first 10.

11. Writing about things that make me happy makes me happy!

12. That makes me realize that actually none of those things is making me happy. I am already content and grateful, and those 10 are helping me to notice!
I’m grateful to have lived long enough to learn that happiness is an inside job. We cannot control the outside world–Shakespeare’s “slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.” Sometimes we cannot control events in our lives–deaths, disappointments, regrets, illness, pain, misfortune.

But we can take charge of our responses and choices. Whether we’re in a joy-filled time or a time of great challenges–or both simultaneously–happiness is within us all the time, ready to be noticed.

So, what are 10 things–or even just one or two things–you’re happy about today?

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