My Happiness Challenge

Last night I attended a Relief Society meeting put on by the Stake for the two wards in our building. They discussed the building blocks of happiness. I found myself going through several stages during the course of the meeting.

Stage 1. What am I doing here? This isn't going to help? I know what they are going to say and it is only going to make me feel worse because I'm not doing everything I can to be happy.

Stage 2. I do need to listen to this because I need to be reminded that Heavenly Father's plan is a plan of Happiness. Maybe I just need to be reminded of the things I can do to improve my own happiness.

Stage 3. I appreciate the comments the others are offering. I'm not alone. Maybe others are feeling the same way. It helps when we come together like this. We can boost each other up.

Stage 4. I can contribute to the discussion. I can share things I have done in the past to help me over hard times. I can rededicate myself to those same things and help myself again. I can recognize that this too, shall come to pass.

Stage 5. I'm going to start working on ways to improve my own happiness. No one can make me happy or unhappy, it is up to me to choose. There are lots of things I can do everyday that will help me to find joy and happiness each day. I am going to start being a happier person.

Some of the things I learned (or relearned) are as follows:

1. We were sent here by Heavenly Father to be happy.
2. Satan will try to steal our happiness if we let him. He knows our weaknesses and will plant negative thoughts in our minds.
3. I am not the only one to have trials and unhappiness.
4. Heavenly Father will prepare a way to see us through if we trust and have faith in the atonement.
5. Happy people have a gratitude attitude. I can be more sincere with my thankful journal. I can also review to remind myself of all the wonderful blessings Heavenly Father has given me.
6. Happy people CHOOSE to have happy thoughts. I have to control my thinking and quickly replace any negative thought with a positive one. I have to TRAIN myself to have happy thoughts.
7. Relationships are important to happy people. I know that the relationships I have keep me going when times are tough. I need to nurture them more and strive to make them even better.
8. Happy people find passion and purpose in their daily activities. This one will be a challenge to me as I can't think of anything in my daily activity to be passionate about. I enjoy my job and I suppose I get passionate about that sometimes, but perhaps I need to concentrate more on my purposes each day and not make things so much of a routine.
9. Happy people laugh easily. I remember a time when I didn't laugh at all for years. I suppose I am in much better shape then I was then as I do laugh more. I still don't laugh as often as I could or should, so it is still something I need to work on. I need to find the funny side of life, even in my trials.
10. Happy people find great joy in trying new things and in creating. Well, my new thing is this blog. So far I am finding joy in being able to put down my thoughts and feelings. I have not got enough courage to tell anyone about it yet so perhaps that will be my next NEW thing. Maybe I'll tell someone in a email I have done this and give them the URL. ... then again, maybe I'll wait a little longer.