Back in 2018 I went on a Happiness Journey, I challenged myself to create a daily Facebook post for a full year that helped me to focus on the positive things in my life instead of dwelling on the negative. I found that while on this journey I learned a lot about the things and people that make me happy and bring joy to my life.

That doesn’t mean the negative things don’t still happen but I discovered that with positive reinforcement they bothered me less or left less of an impact in my overall life. So at the end of 2018 I patted myself on the back for meeting the challenge I set for myself and then went on with my life.

What I found is that I should never have stopped with my posts, even if things got repetitive I should have continued with my Happy posts and continued to build that positive reinforcement and never stopped. Stopping meant that I allowed my mind to dwell again on the negative things.

And let me elaborate on what I mean by negative, this will mean different things to different people, for some it may mean a negative home life or living situations, a job loss or loss of loved ones. For some like me it’s dwelling on issues that are not really issues. In other words making mountains out of mole hills. I also deal with emotional connections to others that for the last few months have appeared to get out of hand. Again these are things that I alone need to take care of because it is no one else’s responsibility that my anxiety or sadness can become overwhelming. I alone control how these things affect me.

With that said not all people can just focus on positive thoughts and be okay, many people do suffer from mental illness that cannot be cured by just having happy thoughts. I cannot ever imagine to know how folks with depression feel, but I do know that just telling them to get over it or just smile will not fix the issue.

Be Patient. Be a good Listener. Be a Shoulder to cry on.

Through this blog I will continue the Happiness Journey that I started in 2018. I will post about the things that make me happy and bring me joy as well as sharing the things that are happening in my life. Life is not always about the positive things and sharing the negative helps to pave the way to more happiness. It’s not allowing it to dominate your life that is the key to happiness. As I start my new and hopefully never ending journey I want to invite you as well to join me, I want to hear about what makes you happy and what your struggles are.

By no means am I a professional in psychiatry. I am just a regular person who wants to share her experiences and what has worked for me. Self-care should be very important to all of us, because how can we be expected to care for others if we can’t care for ourselves.