Happiness is a Choice

We have to be vigilant to love ourselves. Worrying is just being ugly.

When negative thoughts knock on our door we have a choice to welcome them in, put on an apron, make blueberry muffins for them, and lounge around serving coffee all afternoon. Our choice. If they get in, we can show them the door.


Happiness is a choice. We can either be happy or allow negative worry thoughts to rule our life. Sometimes it’s hard because the thoughts keep banging on the door. It takes effort. It’s simple, but it’s not easy.

Touch your sleeve, breathe! Making your attention go from your debilitating thoughts to ANYTHING ELSE is making the choice for happiness.

Catch your kids doing something right!

When kids say hurtful things it’s our opportunity to let them know we give them the benefit of the doubt that their harshness stems from frustration and hurt, not meanness. An inspired response for the parent/teacher who feels wounded is to put her focus on her own feelings. She is there for the child. Each time it happens, she acknowledges her feelings and determines to overcome them by detaching and remembering it is about the well-being of the child. It takes awhile to correct out of the feeling. This is the seasoning that makes a really good parent/teacher. With a lot of practice, and on a really good day, the time gets shorter between feeling the upset and dealing with the upset.

I want to be around people who don’t take things so seriously, who aren’t easily offended. The one thing I really pride myself on is that you never have to apologize to me. It never happened.