My Happy List

An exercise in happiness I hear a lot of my friends discuss recently is how to be present with nine happy things in the midst of anything you find stressful or worth complaining about. I hope to make it a habit, but in this particularly uncertain time, when my restless cacophony is clanging loudly, I thought I’d give it my first attempt. This website explains how to be present and do this exercise effectively.  

 

So what I am thankful for:

1. I am thankful for the smell of coffee in the morning.
2. I am thankful to live in a city I love with people I love, who make Austin the first place I have ever considered setting roots.
3. I am thankful my immediate family is in my life, and I get to watch my niece grow up.  
4. I am thankful that I date a cuddly man. Physical affection is his love language, and it is the most de-stressing thing ever to be around a man who is totally content to just curl up next to me and is certain he would rather be by my side than anywhere else.
5. I am thankful I have intellectually stimulating options of ways to spend my time always. I am never bored.
6. I am thankful for a cat who thinks I’m great no matter what I do and sometimes just purrs when I walk into a room for no other reason than she feels happy and safe in her environment.
7. I am thankful that I get to work outside and with horses, while still totally putting my degrees to use. I have the unicorn job.
8. I am thankful that I am spiritually enriched so easily. Slow breaths, sex, sunshine, hula hooping, horseback riding, dancing, etc all make my internal stress diminish and my sense of interconnectedness and wonder through movement replace it.
9. I am thankful to have a clean, comfortable apartment with a duck pond a couple yards away.

So my tiny little stressor of 10) time management feels a little more okay knowing how much joy there is my life. Well, it's not quite that simple, but I am going to get this list going in my brain's thought rotation. And as always, joy will win out.