Blogboost - Happiness can be contageous

I've signed up for the fall challenge from Blogboost to blog the entire fall about specific themes. That helps breaking my "diary" rhythm here a little bit.  In the first half of October we are stimulated to write about Positivity and Energy.   




I remembered that I had an old blog meme in my drafts dating back to 2014! It is amasing what is gathering dust in the basements of this dinosaur blog :D.  It was used by multiple bloggers back than such as Miss Fabuleus and Blissfulstayathomemom, both of whose blogs have disappeared in the meantime.   The tag would have been started by Bydagmarvalerie in this post.  The concept is that positivity spreads if you share it, so here's a list of positive questions. 

♧ What is your favorite quote and why? 
"Attitude is everything."

I learned this quote as teenager at a leadership camp in Canada.  I learned that life brings all of us challenges, disappointments, grief, etc.  Some people have more luck in life than others, but it is a fact that we all face our challenges and that we all face it differently.   We can sink into despair disappointedly and frustratedly or we can seek the opportunities and the silver lining of the dark cloud.   Attitude is everything.  It gives us a tremendous responsibility of taking our own fate in hand. 

I believed in this quote a lot but 24 years later after that camp I also realise that we need mildness.  Attitude is indeed everything but sometimes life is too overwhelming to cope on our own and turn everything to the "bright side". Yet it is good to realize that changing our perspective and limiting truths can in fact change our reality if we have the energy and force to do so. 

♧ Which dream do you want to realize in life? Yes you can!
Hmm I just read somebody's advice online to chop up your dreams in smaller achievable pieces.  And I commented that I don't have such a big dream goal.  I don't make bucket lists or new year's resolutions either. 

And in this whole corona pandemic, I seem to be doing better than others and I believe it is because I seem to be living more in the moment.  

I want to spend as much precious time as possible with my family. I want to have some good friends. I want to have fun challenges at work and grow and develop in new roles.   And that's it. Isn't that good? 

I don't care to run a marathon or visit x countries before I die or have learned 4 more languages or ... Maybe I do some of these if I all of a sudden feel like it but right now such dreams are not going to determine my happiness. Maybe that's my happiness. Be happy for small things, for the surrounding people, for the things you are already have and be alert and pluck the opportunities that come your way. 

♧ What is the meaning of happiness for you?
I already touched it above. Happiness isn't in big goals.  It's not found in adrenaline or possession.  It's in time spent with others and in nature and with yourself.   I list each month my blessings and they are all simple daily things.  The gift to recognize these and treat them as blessings...that's happiness. 

♧ Who can make you very happy?
My children. Without any doubt, that's my children.
Their innocent conversations and simple uncomplicated view of the world. Their daily hugs and cuddles. Their laughter but also their pure tears to get comforted. 

♧ What are we allowed to wake you up for?
Ugh nothing. I still remember some people waking me up for a silly joke at camps as a teenager. I still carry the grudge against them.  Don't wake me up. In my sleepiness I tried once to kick some of those jokers off the little staircase outside our camping tent base but fortunately I was too sleepy, so I missed. But I had that intention.  If Jan is sleepless, he knows he's supposed to sneak out of the room before he wakes me up. 
Only to my surprise, motherhood has given me the gift to forgive my children when they wake me up.  When I climb up that staircase in utter exhaustion to comfort after yet another nightmare or to change sheets after yet another accident in the bed, I manage to feel empathy and compassion for these little confused humans. And that's a pure miracle. 

♧ What gave you a fit of laughter recently?
A real loud fit of laughter?  I am sorry to say I can't recall and that fact makes me sad. I don't think I've recently had a real expressive laughter.  Some chuckles over things the children said or some irony at work after we are hit by a series of difficult events and some fun series on tv.  But most of it is more interior smiles. 

♧ What makes you incredibly proud?
I don't know, I am rather down to earth and perfectionist. So there's not much I find "exceptional" to be incredibly proud. But I try to be proud again in daily small things, such as overcoming my morning mood to have a little nice chat with the children at the breakfast table and not only rush them towards our deadline.

♧ What message do you want to give others?
I have an issue in the social media that there is too many people with the arrogance to have a message to the others, too many people that feel the need to influence other's towards their life's choices (or products or trips or books or ...).   Maybe we should all live our own lives, enjoy that and seek happiness in daily little things  and realize that we are not in someone else's shoes, so we should be mild with empathy towards others. 

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