Have You Found the Path to Happiness ?

Many conversations I’ve had recently have centered around the struggle of finding happiness while living through the challenges and limitations brought on by the pandemic.

Many of us seek it, but it keeps alluding us — that uplifting feeling, that positive emotion that can be captured in the beauty of a smile, the delight of a laugh, the warmth of a hug, the smell of a grandmother’s kitchen, the softness of a pet’s fur against your leg . . .

Happiness, like all emotions, comes and goes. We will “feel” it, experience it, until something else happens causing us to “feel” differently.

For many, the change imposed on daily living by the COVID-19 pandemic has affected their ability to feel happy. In turn, this has negatively impacted their physical and mental health and created stress in their relationships. While it is normal in times of uncertainty to feel uneasy, anxious, and worried, the duration of the “new normal” may have taken a toll.

How can we be happy with what is happening now?

We can look to the science of happiness and the power of positivity to decrease general stress and anxiety while increasing life balance and overall well being. And, we can choose to be happy.

Ultimately, positive psychology is all about turning our attention to the light side of life while not ignoring the dark side exists. It teaches us that that the good in life is just as real and worth measuring as the bad. And that we can use awareness and a positive mindset to help us get more out of life and make ourselves feel happier.

In this unusual and unprecedented time on earth, we all had to learn to distance ourselves in society while learning to welcome ourselves in solitude. Some may have felt JOMO (joy of missing out) for a bit — I get to stay home! But most eventually were in FOMO (fear of missing out) on some level — I have to stay home. We were left to face an inner world many of us weren’t prepared to face, and we resisted looking in.

What about you? Were you able to embrace the change and find joy in staying home, in getting better acquainted with you? With solitude?

The key to facing any adversity is the wisdom of knowing what we have within our control and taking charge of it, what is within our influence and doing what we can, and accepting everything else.

And, most of 2020 was ‘everything else.’ Considering we cannot change the global situation, we can have some certainty in our daily routines and commitments to self care. Regardless of what we have or have not done so far, we can start now to take control of our thoughts and to stay grounded, healthy and strong in mind, body, and spirit while we continue to ride this out.

Spiritual teachers say we are at a pivotal time in human history where we are being called to lighten our load, reach higher and set a new trajectory for how we want to be living — to pay attention to life and the way we think about it.

2020 certainly stopped us in our tracks and gave us the opportunity to notice life, and like the number 2020 implies, get a clearer vision. The year has certainly given us the chance to see life in a different light. What clarity or insights have you gained in 2020 about yourself? Your career? Your relationships? But most of all, how did you define happiness in 2019, and how do you define happiness now?

I hope that you will see that happiness, any time, is up to you despite circumstances that are outside your control. That when there is nothing in the moment to create happiness, there is always a photo, a song, a tea cup or mug, a pandemic mask that allows you to go out safely, a favorite hat, a holiday movie, a loving pet (or someone else’s), a souvenir from a trip, a special piece of jewelry or clothing item that reminds you of the feeling of happiness and can conjure it up again in an instant.

In the age of Covid, in political divisiveness, in economic uncertainty, in a personal health crisis, in the separation from or even the loss of a loved one, to find the path to happiness, we must look around us, behind us, beside us, ahead of us, above us… if you are open to happiness, it is there to be found in the lighter side of life.