5 minutes to Happiness?

I just finished reading an article here -http://www.chatelaine.com/en/blog/post/34828--do-this-five-minutes-a-day-to-be-happier.

It states that you can be happier in just 5 minutes a day.

Now today was not a "happy" day for me.  Maybe it was the negative ions in the air, or the chemical reactions in our family that caused all kinds of minor reverberations.  But I can tell you without a shadow of a doubt that I was one tense, snappish lady today, and I am very, very, hard on myself when I get that way.  I don't like myself in that mood and then when others around me get snappish too, it can ugly very quickly.

I think it started with a sense of unease for me, wondering if I am loved, appreciated...(silly, but very real)...and that feeling pushes me into an unhappy place.  It colors my thinking, blue.  It shades the way I hear people talk to me and how I perceive those around me are behaving.  It is a slippery slope from then on, sliding, I'm afraid only downward.

So, I was fascinated again, as I am by any article on happiness or gratitude, that this one points out, as others have, that what we focus on grows -

" “There’s something called a downward spiral and an upward spiral. When people are really down and really depressed, their minds drifts in that direction. At any given day there are good things going on and bad things going on and when you’re depressed, you see the bad things faster than you would the good things going on,” he says. “But research has also shown that it goes in the other direction — when you’re in a positive place, it works as well.”" (quoted from aforementioned article)

Aha, I think to myself, here it is again.  Just like "One Thousand Gifts" by Ann Voskamp, now a beloved book of mine, there it is, intentional gratitude, something to be cultivated, practiced.  It is a deliberate turning away from the disheartening and focusing instead on the things that are good, and lovely, the many things I can be thankful for.

This is not to deny, or pretend we do not have genuine things that cause us to lament or grieve! It is not to stuff away or bury that which burdens us -  it is, however, a genuine time of looking up, a time of turning towards.  It is a time to hunt for the blessings, the positives, the gifts all around me.

And so, this is what I choose to do now - before the day is done and darkness descends and sleep is the land I travel to.

I am thankful for air, crisp, cold and clear.

I am thankful for gentle snowfall, covering the barren earth, a blanket, bringing beauty.

I am thankful for the quiet moments I had today to reflect and revise my thinking.

I am thankful that I can read!  Oh, how I love reading!  Oh, how it teaches me so much!

I am so very thankful for my family, even on days when we are sandpaper to each other - this is how we grow, learn, change - offer grace and forgiveness to one another.

I am thankful that tomorrow is indeed, another day,  that I can start again, fresh.

I am thankful that I was able to get some errands done today.

I am so thankful that tomorrow is Party Day with my side of the family!!! - that I can celebrate those whom I love so very much.  I am thankful we can be together.

Oh, it's true, it's true, I do feel better!!!

What about you?  What are you grateful for?

And for more fascinating reading on happiness, check out Gretchen Rubin's "The Happiness Project" another great source for all things happiness.



SnananOne Thousand Gifts"a