It seems like the only time I blog on my blog is when I upgrade my site (this only occurs because I try to do it before Matt).
So I have been home today sick. These sorts of days usually give me lots of time to think. I entertained myself this afternoon watching some very informative TED talks and some I fell asleep to. A couple of them happened to talk about happiness. This is a topic that always interests me because really, isn’t everybody always searching for true happiness?? (Maybe not….maybe I am the only one with this thought). One part of happiness discussed involved how we are less satisfied when given too many choices. We will always dwell on what we could have had instead of being happy with what we were given, without any other choice. Well actually there is supposedly a magical number of choices that we would be happy with, but this person said we far surpassed that number. I think dwelling on what I could have had is a big problem of mine. I talked forever about wanting the job that I currently have now and how it would be the perfect job, etc. These thoughts occurred when I had an office type job. Now that I don’t have an office type job, my brain is telling me I would be happier with an office type job. When will I win?? I am pretty sure no matter what job I have I will always have good and bad days, this I know. But will I always wonder if there is a better job out there for me that will be my perfect, ideal job?According to my thoughts 2 years ago, I would be in that job right now. So I should be happy, right? Most of the time I am. Then there are times where I feel stuck and wonder why I subject myself to “beatings” from little ones….the answer to this is because the good by far out-ways the “beatings”. Some days it’s scary to think I am affecting children’s lives. Other days I feel privileged to work with the children to better their lives. I work with children that have autism. It is a challenging job and my mood affects how they perform during my session with him/her. I have always said I want a job working one-on-one with children and get to travel to different locations. Guess what? I get to do that on a daily basis. So, I have my ideal job! Woohoo for me! So why are there days where I don’t want it anymore or I am not wanting to go? I am choosing how I feel every day. I think to the point of this blog post is to end with something I try to tell myself every day…and I wrote this to myself when I started the Autism and Behavioural Science program:
“Remember – I CHOOSE my feelings. Choose happiness, choose sadness. I have control.”
I sort of lost focus on the TED talk that I was watching. The point was that synthesized happiness is just as good as naturally occurring happiness. Synthesized happiness is us seeing the good in things. He gave a few examples. The one I liked was:
If you go out on a date with a guy and he picks his nose you think ew! I’m never going out with him again. If the guy you are married to picks his nose you think he has a heart of gold, but keep your hands out of the chip bag!
Bottom line = You choose how you feel. Let in the positive, keep out the negative. I figure if I type it out, I will be more likely to stick to my own advise. HA! We’ll see.
I apologize for any rambling that doesn’t make sense….this is how me and my sister have conversations. 