Pursuing Balance & Joy

I Am Happy

Friday, August 27th, 2010

Hi, friends!

Do you remember when this journey was 100 days old? Well, today is day 1241. How is it even possible that it’s been nearly 3.5 years?! I won’t bore you with a list of the ways my life has changed. I’ve documented that list here on the blog many times, and in some ways, I do that a little bit every day. Today I just want to talk about one way.

I am happy.

Somewhere along the way, while I have been changing my body and getting healthy, I changed my brain. I changed my thought patterns. I changed the way I view the world. I got happy.

It sounds so simple, right? Well, honestly, it is pretty simple.

What I’ve learned on this journey is that happy isn’t complicated. It’s not how you look. It’s not what you have. It’s not who does or doesn’t love you. It’s not whether your family appreciates you. It’s not whether you have a job. (I wasn’t blogging around the time I got fired, but yes, that happened last December.) Nothing outside of you makes you happy or unhappy.

Happy is how you feel. It’s how you choose to react to the world. And, this is my favorite part, once you learn to be happy, you can help other people learn to be happy too!

Am I happy all the time? No. Of course not.

If anyone tells you they are happy all the time, they probably live in a cave somewhere and don’t read the news.

No one is happy when they get cut off, in speaking or traffic or even walking. No one is happy when they read terrible news. No one is happy when someone close to them dies. Those are all things that happen in the world every day. There are a lot of reasons out there to be unhappy, but what good does unhappy do?

I believe that everything that happens in my life happens for a reason. God is out there with some plan for me that is too big for me to understand. I’m okay with that. I have faith that it’s a good plan or He wouldn’t have it.

That very simple faith is how I can be happy. When things happen, I choose my reaction to them. When I miss the train, I can be angry and mean to the people around me, or I can use the time to catch my breath and look around and smile at someone. When Starbucks got my drink wrong yesterday, I could have yelled at the guy, but why? He’s just a guy trying to do a job. I can’t get mad at him for that. I can hope that my reaction to the error and my smile helped make his day a little better.

Is that simple? Yes.

Is it easy? Not all of the time.

Sometimes I too need reminding that there’s no reason to be unhappy. I seek out the things that remind me: friends, family, blogs, podcasts, sunshine, etc.

Are you happy? What will it take to get you there? Comment if there’s anything you want help with…

Posted in Everyday Life | 2 Comments »

Stuff

Thursday, August 26th, 2010

Hi, friends!

Okay, I’m sore. I admit it. I don’t want to admit it, but it’s true. I’ve pushed myself hard this week. I was rewarded for that with a lovely 137.0 on the scale this morning. Food is definitely still my struggle, but I think it’s getting easier. I honestly think becoming a vegetarian has helped me a lot. I’ve eliminated a lot of the choices that I used to have a hard time with, like cheeseburgers. I’m surprised I don’t miss them, but I really don’t.

I know I just said I’m sore, but I can also honestly say that I feel pretty fantastic. I’m running a little faster and climbing stairs A LOT faster. I’m working out more consistently. I’ve postponed a workout here and there in the last week, but I haven’t skipped any. (I think postponing is part of my soreness because I did some things closer together than I normally would so I lacked a few hours of rest time in between workouts.) It’s all a learning process: working out, eating healthy, pursuing balance and joy, living.

My goal weight, the weight where I feel my best, is still 127. I have 10 pounds to go. I’m excited this week to see the numbers moving down consistently. I’m also nervous because I know weekends are when I sabotage myself. I’m trying to focus on how good this feels rather than how bad it will feel if I stop making progress. I feel like I always focus on what I want in the short-term on the weekends instead of what my goals are. I want to be in my favorite jeans by my birthday. That’s important to me.

Something else that’s going to happen around my birthday is a major closet-cleaning. I have too much stuff. Goodwill is going to get another huge pile of clothes. (I’m SO happy those piles aren’t plus sizes anymore!) I have been really bad about buying clothes that I like but don’t love. Then I get them home and like them less. I’ve stopped doing that, and now it’s time to get to my happy weight and get rid of everything I don’t love.

It’s not that I don’t have the room for all this stuff. The new apartment is HUGE. I just want the next place I live to not need the room. I want to live someplace small. Is that weird? I want to live someplace where bf and I can’t help but bump into each other. We are so blessed to have more than we need. I just feel like having more sometimes gets in the way of realizing WHY we’re so blessed. Thus, I have this new desire to pare it down a bit. (Don’t worry; we’ve talked about it, and he shares this desire…whew!)

Right now all this paring down is in the thinking stage. It gets approximately 35 more days of that. (It’s 35 days until my birthday!!!) After that, stuff is going to start disappearing. I’m oddly excited about that. Experiences are just so much better than stuff.

Does your stuff get in the way? What are you going to do about it?

Posted in Diet, Everyday Life, Exercise, Goals | Comments Off