Last week, I was fortunate enough to attend a seminar on wellness and happiness for work. There are days I really love my job - hearing about how to be well for an entire day was one of them.
I heard an interesting presentation on different types of happiness and when we typically feel them in our lives - there's excited happiness, when a person looks forward to certain events, knowing they will bring them happiness, and there's calm happiness, when a person is focused on present events that bring them happiness. Younger people typically feel excited happiness and older people typically feel calm happiness.
I am definitely an excited happy type of person. I'm normally looking forward in life, I get excited very easily, and it sometimes overwhelms me how happy I am about events that are coming. As a result though, I often don't live in the moment and truly enjoy small happinesses I experience everyday.
I decided it was extremely important for me to take joy in everyday life, instead of waiting for the next big, exciting event to come around. I tried to think on my way home about what the happiest day of my life was, excluding things like my wedding, the birth of my nephew, etc. It didn't take me very long to decide that a random fall day 3 years ago was that day.
We had just bought our house, the weather was gorgeous, we had an adorable puppy and were planning our wedding. Honestly, life couldn't have gotten any better for either of us at that point in our lives. I've said before how much I love fall, and I wanted to get outside and explore our new farm with my Molly. So, I grabbed the camera and we stayed outside, roaming around the property for over an hour.
It's a little strange that that day stuck out to me as my most happy, because nothing major happened. I was definitely in a state of calm happiness that day, and I can still remember the feeling like it was yesterday instead of 3 years ago. I would love to have that feeling more often.
I've always been a city girl. I appreciate the hustle and bustle, all the people, the architecture, the opportunities for culture and diversity and never being bored. I thought I would be miserable adjusting to country life, but it didn't take long for me to fall in love with the silence. The stillness of everything around me. I don't have to worry about my puppies running and playing until they're so tired they can't even walk inside the house. It's like we live in a whole other world, and I can't imagine ever having neighbors or traffic or noisy evenings again.
As fall approaches {thank goodness!}, I know I'll have more days like the one I remember so fondly. I know that I will have a much easier time focusing on the present and being happy with what's happening today.
And speaking of present things I'm THRILLED about - tomorrow is the Iowa State / Iowa football game and I couldn't be more excited to watch the Cyclones win in Ames! I'm also loving all the fall cooking I've been doing, and can't wait to sit down to dinner with the family tomorrow night {Mike got to pick his birthday dinner, so I'm making meatloaf, twice baked potatoes, garlic corn, and beer bread...holy food hangover, Batman!}
I hope everyone has a very happy weekend!
No comments:
Post a Comment