Today Is The Day

What are you waiting for?

Who am I?

What do I want from my life, and what is preventing me from achieving it?

I recognize that I am the source of my happiness.

Today is the day.

Thongs

I have had these thongs for over 40 years.  

They have been water skiing.

They have been camping.

They have been to many pools.

They have gone on many vacations.

They have been in closets and out.

They have been packed for every move.

They have made every cut in decluttering.

They are not perfect.

There is a tear in the left one.

They are good enough.

In this picture they are buried in the sand but surrounded by beauty.

Kind of like life...surrounded by beauty but feeling a little buried.

My girls are horrified that I call them thongs.

They tell me they are flip flops.

I would be horrified if anyone thought I wore a thong.

So meet my new "old" flip flops.

They were with me this weekend to celebrate my birthday at the ocean!

How old is a treasure that you have hung onto?

Superpowers

What would you attempt 

to do 

if you knew 

you could not fail? 

The other night I asked my two daughters this question. We each had different answers, that ranged from strictly personal goals to ending world suffering and sickness.  It makes me think about lots of ideas that would be fun and could make the world better too.  

I think to really have this be possible we would need a few superpowers:

• Controlling Weather...drought here in California needs some help.
• Eat Anything...oh my...be still my heart...imagine!
• Flight...kind of boring.
• Mind Control....now we're talking.
• Spider Webs...ok for Halloween.
• Time Travel...could really mess up the past which then affects the future.
• X Ray Vision...would I still need to wear my contact lens?
• Super-Hearing, Speed, and Strength...all have been done before.

We are attracted to Superman, Captain America, Iron Man, BatMan, Green Lantern and others because of their superpowers.   My personal favorite is Wonder Woman. I mean, a Lasso of Truth?  Can it get any better? What I could do with a Lasso of Truth! 

Superhero superpowers are conducive to making the world a better place. 

But I think we can make the world better just using our own superpowers.

Kindness, empathy and love are a good place to start.

Throw in making a decision to be happy and taking action.

Add smiling which  has some superpower benefits and we can use it every day. 

We also have some evil superpowers like guilt and shame.  Those are not helping us or the world. We need to use that famous Lasso of Truth and banish them. Only positive Superpowers are used in my story. Creative license, you know.  

Happiness is a superpower.  

It blazes and inflicts positivity until we have a new reality.  

Be a super hero and choose happiness.

Make a difference.

Change the world.

What would you attempt to do if you knew 

you could not fail? 

AND

What superpowers would you use to accomplish it?

Optimist or Pessimist?

There is a song by Paramore called: For a Pessimist, I'm Pretty Optimistic.  I really like the title and it has brought a few laughs to some in our family who have been accused of having a negativity bias.   

Lately I have been complaining, whining, being a little negative and definitely overthinking life.  I have made pro and con lists, to do lists, not-to-do lists and have been giving too much credit to the thoughts bouncing around in my head. It is difficult to be taken seriously when the thoughts are really just pouting and venting. 

If you think too much, you can create problems that were not there to begin with. You can have those skeptical thoughts become gloomy then angst sets in and before you know it you are in despair and your daughter could be saying, "For an optimist, you are pretty pessimistic."  

(Not that this is necessarily a true story, and if it was I would change the names to protect the innocent.)  

Sometimes we have a tendency to be caught in a mental loop of overthinking.  It can ruin the situation, twist things around, make you worry and it can make everything much worse than it actually is.  

Rumination-break the habit!

Being a happiness teacher does not guarantee that life is always perfect or even fun. Cheerfulness, hope and confidence are not given with that title.  

Those positive traits are earned and learned.  

They take practice and practice and even more practice.

There is no perfect.

Two facts from The Happiness Journey by Bob and Virginia Pothier:

• Our brains are not built to make us happy.
• Our brains are built to latch onto negativity and to treat it as overly important.

When rumination and over thinking take over, it can be linked to bouts of increased sadness, difficulty solving problems and decreased motivation, concentration and drive.  It is an unhealthy and dangerous mental habit.  It can be a slippery slope to navigate. 

I believe that what you think about becomes your life.   

So if you are on this path, snap out of it.

Use tools of positivity to keep going on your happiness journey.

Remember that happiness is not the absence of unhappiness.

It doesn't matter if the glass is half empty or half full because...

1. The glass has air in it so I believe it is always full!
2. Be glad you have a glass!

What I know for sure is that there are days I feel overwhelmed and a little over the top heading towards pessimism but most days are filled with positive thoughts and making progress towards being an optimist.  

What's in your glass?