"Happiness is like a butterfly: the more you chase it, the more it will elude you, but if you turn your attention to other things, it will come and sit softly on your shoulder."
Henry David Thoreau
I do not quite agree with this statement. I certainly agree that nobody can demand happiness, insist on it or make it conditional– when I am thin I am going to be happy, when I have lots of money I will be happy etc. And I also believe strongly that happiness is not going to come just because you put the thought out into the universe and do nothing about it.
I think we have got to work at being happy. Start by being grateful for the many good things you already have in your life (especially the small and tiny things we take for granted). Forgive whatever happened in the past (forgive yourself and others – not easy but a worthwhile exercise, especially forgiving yourself) And then you have the choice between being a miserable person or a happy one. Chose to be happy and do not worry - you are not going to end up like a sillily grinning fool at all times. Happiness is like a butterfly sitting softly on your shoulder - you will not always be aware of it. But nothing compares to the joy when you become aware of it.
Enough of my round about way of getting to what I want to say in this entry - I know how to do happy but not how to have some outrageous fun. I am having fun at home with my artwork with my life in general but it has become kind of solitary fun and I want some other fun too. I have written about it before but have not acted upon it because I have been waiting to be in better shape. There I said it! This is another of those things that when I own up to it out loud, I feel like a complete moron.
How dense can one get???? I am not going to have a better class of fun because I am thinner, I have not noticed people being different with me whatever my weight. I have just noticed that I become very self conscious, my own worst critic and subsequently much less out going (and going out) when my weight goes up. As I said, there is nothing wrong with having fun on your own - a lot of people could do with learning that skill. But I want more layers and enrich my life with ‘public’ fun (is there a proper word for this??)
So I figure the same applies to fun as it does to happiness. I gotta work at it. I can decide to have fun and set up the situations I would enjoy. Yes, there will be that niggling thought that suddenly the fun police is going to jump out from behind the bush, point their fingers at me and say: you are the wrong size to have fun.
What do you think? Should I just cross that bridge when it happens?
Apart from that, life is really good. I am in balance again and today I feel a million dollars. Weight continues to go down slowly and having reduced my food intake considerably has a lot of other positive effects. Thumbs up!
2 comments:
i vote for fun xxx
Doris, I agree with what you're saying about having to "work" at being happy.
A client of mine has a real big fat issue with the word "work" and working at something or working hard to achieve something. For her things NEED to be in flow. For me, I like "working" at something, as work is play and play is work (most of the time...) It takes me to wonder whether it might be more useful if we say it's important to be in awareness of happiness. In other words, being grateful like you said. I dont work at being happy to be grateful for your and my Doris Days. It flows and it comes natural, but boy am I happy and grateful that they exist! :-)
And if we take it up a level, to consciously be aware of other things to be thankful for and actually make that choice that thats what and where we want to be, then bobs your uncle. For me its so much also to do with choice, rather than work.
If we choose to be more fun, to have a "public" fun side, then we will take action to make that happen.
So, if I let you know that I am planning a girls-getogether somewhen in the Fall, most likely in the UK, with all of my best friends for a weekend somewhere FUN, what would you do? Come along I hope and not worry about being thin, cuz babe, I and about 2 others will be thinkin exactly the same - so we might as well pool our sorrows together and celebrate fun and life and living! :-)
So, to end on a short note....absolutely fabulastic congratulations on your continued weight loss. You never mentioned that in our last call. Naughty you!
Tah again for making me happy
x
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