You can choose to experience happiness every day.
You can also choose to avoid frustration, anger and dissatisfaction, and make your life a pleasant and enjoyable trip.
It might seem strange to you, but you are the one responsible for your happiness and unhappiness. You are the one who chooses what it will be.
You can allow circumstances and external situations to make you feel unhappy, unsatisfied and grumpy, and you can decide to enjoy life and not to allow them to affect your state of mind.
Every day, we go through various situations that affect how we feel, but with a little effort, we can turn these situations to our advantage and enjoy them, instead of suffer, get angry, and become unhappy.
Last week, my wife and I flew to St. Petersburg in Russia, which is a lovely place. We heard so much about it, so we decided to fly there and explore the city. We rented a lovely apartment and stayed there for over a week.
Though it was in July, it rained often. The strange thing is that the weather changed completely every few hours. For a few hours, it was sunny and warm, and then it suddenly became cloudy and rainy. Half an hour later, it again became sunny, like a usual warm summer day.
The apartment we rented was in a new neighborhood, situated about fifteen minutes’ walk to St. Petersburg’s main street, Nevsky Prospect. One morning, when we got out of the apartment, we saw that the sky was becoming dark, and then it started to rain heavily, with lightning and thunders.
Instead of becoming frustrated and angry at the weather, because we could not go out, we stood at the entrance of the building and enjoyed watching the falling rain. It was a beautiful sight, but also strange, because we wore coats at this time of the year.
After a few minutes, we decided to go back to the apartment and wait for the rain to stop.
We chose to enjoy this situation. It was our vacation, we had free time, and we were not in a hurry to get anywhere. We prepared a warm cup of coffee for each of us, took a few cookies, and sat on the sofa in front of the big window to watch the falling rain.
It was pleasant and relaxing, as if we were sitting in a lovely coffee house. When we finished drinking our coffee the rain stopped and the clouds dispersed, and we could go out.
As you see, we chose to enjoy the present moment and not get frustrated because it was raining.
As you see, we turned a frustrating incident into a pleasant one. You can do the same in almost every situation you encounter every day. You can choose happiness every day.
Everyone goes through similar situations every day, and can choose how to act in these situations. You need to make the choice how to feel, happy, or frustrated and unhappy. We cannot always control or change external situations, but we can control how we act and react.
Everyday life is composed of various situations and circumstances, which affect our moods and state of mind. Contrary to what you might think, you can prevent them from affecting you. You can choose to allow them to make you feel bad and unhappy, and you can choose to be happy, and even take advantage of them.
You can turn difficult, unpleasant or frustrating incidents to your advantage, as we did, when it started to rain and we could not go out.
You can choose to allow external factors affect you, and you can choose to decide how to feel and act. What do you choose?
How to Choose Happiness Every Day and Avoid Unhappiness
1. You plan to go and watch a certain movie, but when you arrive to the cinema, you discover that all the tickets have been sold out. Instead of getting frustrated, why not buy tickets to a different movie. You might enjoy the other movie even more than the one you could not see.
2. You wish to eat cereals in the morning, as you always do, but then you discover that you ran out of milk. What would you do, get angry and unhappy? In what way would that help you? Why not accept the situation and eat your cereals with Yogurt, with nothing else, or be adventurous and eat something different?
3. You are expecting friends to arrive to your house.
You clean the house, cook or buy some delicious food, and put a bottle of wine on the table.
When everything is ready, and you are waiting for your friends to arrive, you get a phone call from them, telling you that they cannot come.
It certainly is a frustrating situation. However, instead of getting angry with your friends and feeling bad, you can choose to take some action, and invite either a good neighbor or another friend who can come on a short notice. You may also enjoy the food and the wine with your boyfriend or girlfriend, or with your wife or husband.
4. Do you sometimes miss your bus? How do you feel when this happens? Would it help if you get angry or frustrated?
Instead of getting angry and becoming unhappy, why not walk if your destination is not too far? If you have to wait for the next bus, you might find it interesting to look at the people around you or watch the passing cars. You may also read, listen to music, or even meditate until the next bus arrives.
5. Sometimes, we meet people who are nasty, unpleasant or aggressive. This can happen on the bus or train, at the mall or on the street. At times, even people we know, such as family or friends, might say something we do not like.
How do you react in these situations? Do you retort angrily, feel hurt and become angry and unhappy? This is the usual reaction. However, you can choose to react differently. You can chose to stay calm and not take too personally what they said or did.
You can avoid becoming entangled with the emotions people create through their words and actions. You will probably not succeed the first time or the second time, but if you persevere, teach yourself to stay calm, and ignore their remarks and comments, gradually, you will not be affected and would stay happy and calm.
You see, choosing to be happy every day is possible, though it requires some inner work on your part. You can change your attitude and reactions, and this will help you stay happy, even in difficult and unpleasant situations.
