In her book, Happy For No Reason, Marci Shimoff purports that everything we do can take us a little closer to Happiness, or a little further away. Nearly one year after I began studying Happiness, I still find this to be true AND have a lot more scientific evidence to back it up. The music you listen to, the clothes you wear, to complain or compliment or compare ourselves to the Jones’ – all of these things have an effect on your Happiness. The good news is that if you are willing to listen, there is a voice inside you that knows. It is LISTENING to this voice that we often fail to do. The nutshell version of Happiness 101 is to raise your level of awareness of these decisions we make, decide whether they are making us happy (or not), then choose what to do about it. So, on some level you know that choosing the burger over the veggies is a step away from Happiness, but we often choose the immediate gratification over Happiness. Is racing home making you Happy – or would it feel better to Happily share the road, feeling good about letting people in your lane? Water or soda? What does your GPS tell you will make you happy? You have it. It’s in there. Listen to it. You’ll be Happy you did.
~Frank Clayton
Licensed Professional Counselor