Happiness is a Choice

[DanaC]

Originally Posted by Sundae

I see happiness in the same way.
I am more than pleased to take content, fair to middling, can't complain. And the blips are what are teaching me how to stay there more and more often. When I wake up and feel trapped, distressed, worthless, I now know it will pass. I have more than the vast majority of people in the world in terms of material wealth. I can choose dry, clean, well (if mundanely) fed, safely hydrated. Is this enough to make me happy? No. Will it suffice if it stops me spiralling down into drink and horror? Yes. Will happiness come? It's already here in fits and starts and moments.

It's the euphoria I have to watch for.

Very well put.

See, for me: fair to middlin is happy. That's what I have realised over the years.

I try not to hanker after a life I will never lead/thought I should have been leading by now/see other people leading. Not always easy - took a conscious effort to just let all that shit go.

I know people who seem to live in a permanent state of envy. Of their friend's looks, their co-workers' youth and so on. Or who seem to inhabit a state of permanent underlying anger or disappointment. It's toxic. I remember that feeling. I went through a few years where that was my baseline.