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“I just want to be happy!” I hear these words constantly–in songs, in movies, from my friends\/children\/spouse’s mouths. Sometimes I even hear them come out of my own mouth or go rumbling around in my head. But what does it mean to “be happy”? And how does one get happy?<\/p>\n
I chose the title of this blog (“My Happy Place”) very carefully. I want to share with my readers stories from “my happy place”,\u00a0 the farm, but I also want to communicate how I get–and stay–happy. A happy state of mind takes constant upkeep.\u00a0 What goes on in my head filters down to my emotions. If I think depressing, negative things, I will instantly start feeling sad and depressed. Simple cliche’s such as “Think positive!” really do mean something. I can think myself happy if I carefully monitor my thoughts. Just as I care for my animals and my children–by monitoring what they eat or where they go–I try to monitor my thoughts. I stay away from negative people as much as I can, I don’t listen to the news (I find reading headlines keeps me informed without bringing me down) and I don’t read sad or depressing books or watch those kind of movies.<\/p>\n
Instead, I try to feed my thoughts a healthy diet of good things–Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable–if anything is excellent or praiseworthy–think about such things. Philippians 4:8, The Bible<\/em>. Here are some mantras which help me do just this. <\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Sometimes just one of these mantras will pull me from a negative spot and lift me higher.\u00a0 Sometimes I have to use all of them…multiple times…and *still* I feel like hiding under the covers. At those times I ask myself practical questions such as, “Have you eaten anything healthy today?”, “Are you tired?”, “Are you hormonal?” “Do you need to change your environment: rearrange the furniture, change the lighting or go outside?” or “Do you not like what you’re doing right now, and, if so, can you do something else for awhile?” Depending on my answer, I can change my mental state by changing my circumstance. I do understand that this is too simplistic for people who are dealing with chemical imbalances or traumatic events or grief. These suggestions are just a beginning place.<\/p>\n For the majority of my life I believed I was a slave to my emotions: some days were good and some days were bad. I’ve learned, though, that I have more power over my own life than that. I get to choose…so I choose happy.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" “I just want to be happy!” I hear these words constantly–in songs, in movies, from my friends\/children\/spouse’s mouths. Sometimes I even hear them come out of my own mouth or go rumbling around in my head. But what does it mean to “be happy”? And how does one get happy? I chose the title…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":386,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[68,121,87,17,69],"tags":[288,280,122],"class_list":["post-312","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gratefulness","category-happiness","category-inspiration","category-purposeful-living","category-thankful","tag-happiness","tag-inspiration","tag-positive-thinking"],"yoast_head":"\n\n
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