So much of what we hear about being happy involves focusing on other people. Being kind, being compassionate, forgiving, and so on. However, when these gifts are offered to us, we might miss them because we are too busy to notice, or because we don’t think we deserve them. Recognizing and appreciating these gifts will fill up our happiness reservoirs.
Have you ever tried to give a compliment to someone who wouldn’t take it? For example, maybe you tell your friend she looks nice and she responds that her hair looks terrible or she needs to lose weight. Why do we miss these opportunities to soak up the goodness that someone offers us?
Yesterday I decided that I was going to pay attention all day to all the goodness that came my way from whatever source. Here are some highlights.
When I woke up, my dog came over to snuggle.
I had a long phone visit with a good friend.
Mia emptied the dishwasher without being asked.
I took Lily and Mia and Mia’s boyfriend Emanuel up to the cabin for the day. Emanuel offered to carry my things to the car.
A driver made room for me to change lanes.
At the cabin, we played games together and laughed our heads off.
We stopped at a restaurant on the way home from the cabin. The server was especially nice.
The kids (they are young adults now, but always kids to me) all thanked me for taking them out to eat.
The amazing thing is that at the end of the day, all I could remember was the good stuff. If anything happened that was irritating or upsetting, I didn’t notice. My attention was on the positive. I felt blessed.
I’m going to try that again today.
what a LOVELY way to look at things! It made me smile to read your list ~ and then...I thought about the things that I got to experience today that fit that category. WOW...it was a long list of "little things" of goodness that added up to a GREAT day of interactions!
ReplyDeleteThanks for your posting! and...thanks for the smile!