C'mon, get happy!It's a very cold, windy morning here and I'm sitting in my office at my laptop listening to the radio station that plays Christmas carols nonstop while sipping my coffee. I am having a very rare happy moment. Ahhhh, I wish it could last forever. I wish I could share it with all of you. I think some of this new-found contentment comes courtesy of a book I've been reading lately called, "Happiness Now" by Robert Holden. In it, he points out the importance of experiencing the "now" of happiness - the present moment - and not looking outside of yourself to other people or other things, to the past or to the future for it. It's all within you if you just stop long enough to get quiet and let it rise to the top. Or so he claims. So far, so good.
I think I've spent a lot of my life looking outward for the answers - including thinking that once I lost all the weight I needed to lose, I'd be so much happier and suddenly be enlightened as to the ways of the world. But I think it might work the other way around. I think happiness with oneself brings about feelings of worthiness and deserving of good things: emotions often found lacking in people who've had life-long weight struggles. No one can make us happy or fulfilled except ourselves. Oh sure, money and good looks open a lot more doors and I wouldn't turn down either but in the long end, those superficial things don't define your character. Sorry - I don't mean to go all Wayne Dwyer on you. Just thinking, is all.
Any thoughts, friends?
13 comments:
It was only once I started loving myself and being happy with myself that I had the courage to lose weight.
humm well for me I had to start losing weight to like seeing myself in the mirror-but I did do it because I wanted to luv myself more. :)
Well, I've always been happy with who I am, but a thinner me would be nice, but not imperative. Maybe that's why I don't progress faster than I do. Hmmmmmm.
However, that adorable doggie in your blog made me very happy for today.
Great post!! I have spent a lifetime looking outside myself, one way or another, for happiness. In my head I know it's an inside job...but....sometimes I think I've found an easier way. Not so much.
EVERY time I feel JOY is when I am in the moment.
Loved the Smiling Dog!
I'm going with happiness first. Money doesn't buy happiness, it give you options. And I don't think thinness gives you true happiness. Happiness is a feeling that comes from your soul, not the size of your waist.
Enjoy the carols...
Happiness is an experience and emotion, not a reward or treat or something to withhold from ourselves.. It can happen at any time, not matter what state our bodies are in. It depends on us and what we are willing to allow in. I was perfectly happy when I was obese. I just found happiness in other things. I'm happy now, because I like where I am now.
My girlfriend has this quote in her email signature:
"All of the animals except for man know that the principle business of life is to enjoy it." ~ Samuel Butler
This is such a hard one. At first I hated myself (honestly) every time I saw 300 pound me in the mirror. I wish I could say I loved first, then lost, but that wouldn't be true.
I lost some, loved a bit, loved a bit more, lost some more. It was a gradual cycle. I admire people who can just love themselves completely and then feel ready to get healthy. I think that's awesome.
I love who I am on the inside- always have. Sad to say, but I think growing up in an overweight family helped me find value in character instead of vanity. I gained weight because of the food that was served and the quantity it was served in- trusting that was how everyone else did it too. And of course, that became a habit and I gained weight gradually, but consistantly. So to me, it's not my weight that makes me unhappy- it's my health. My 24 year old bones feel like they belong to a 50 year old. I ache and creak and huff and puff and sweat. That is what I'm unhappy with. So now that I told you my life story:
I agree with Camevil.LOL
I'm so for you that you're making these life assessment. Good for you!
Love Camevil's quote. So true.
I was happy before I lost weight. I've been thin and happy, thin and unhappy, fat and unhappy, fat and happy. I'm starting to think there's not all that much correlation.
But it does feel good to identify a problem, take steps, and make progress, keeping promises to yourself in the process. That's happy-making.
this is precisely the reason I agreed to the the EXPOSED POST.
for me 100% it was the HAPPINESS.
100%.
xo xo,
Miz.
My journey has gone hand in hand---health and happiness. Now that I am more active, my stress is a bit more under control, and I am finding that it cascades.
That being said, I am working hard to relish simple things and happy in the now whereever I can grab it.
Good post.
Happiness comes first before weight loss but there is a catch. It is acceptance. I can honestly say I have been happy with most things in my life but I am not happy with my size, my body and my weight. All those years, I told myself I was happy with my body but it was an excuse not to accept it. I had to come to the point of accepting myself, as I am, and then striving for the goal of happiness with my body. Each pound, I get closer.
I really think that the more weight that you loose the more you start loving your yourself more.
Vanity! Don't you just love it!
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