Finding Joy in Your Life

I’m going to get really honest with you.  I spent a great deal of my life just being unhappy with everything.  Even in the moments I was happy, I never truly felt a sense of peaceful joy.  I always felt like I wanted more and needed to do better.  Felt that I would eventually reach a point in my life where everything was “perfect” and I could just be happy.

After everything I have been through and seen thus far, I have finally realized this is a ridiculous notion.  No one person can ever be constantly happy.  We are allowed to be sad, angry, hurt, joyful, surprised, and happy.  WE ARE NOT REQUIRED TO BE HAPPY EVERY MOMENT OF EVER DAY!

With this newfound knowledge, I have begun finding those moments of joyful happiness.  I was lying in bed with my sleeping dogs and husband the other night and just took a moment to pause.  To be aware of exactly what I was feeling in that moment.  You know what it was…happiness.  I felt content that I had everything I needed right there with me.  There wasn’t anything I was working for or grasping at to make me happy.  I was just happy.

Considering the amount of time, I have spent chasing happiness but never really achieving it, this feeling was surreal.  In this moment, I also realized how much I have grown and changed in the past two years.  For me to be able to recognize a that I was actually happy was awesome!! 

Learning to love myself has improved my life in so many positive ways.  Finally having the ability to acknowledge my feelings, understand why I am feeling that way, working through them and understanding that they are not me, they are simply my reaction to my life at that moment is beautiful.  It is freeing to reach this point in my life where I can feel whatever I need to feel and not constantly be chasing happiness. 

Be happy when you are happy, but please don’t ever feel like this is your only goal in life.  Recognize that all the other feelings you have are also important and necessary.  They are there to show you what you need to know about yourself and that time in your life.  Yes, they are painful and sucky, but they often lead us through to those moments in the middle of the night when we finally understand happiness and joy. 
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Make peace with yourself.  It is the first step to understanding everything else in your life.