Happiness is... A State of Knowing

 

Happiness is not, as I may have mentioned before, about being positive and uplifted and perpetually gleeful and laughing instead of crying. Happiness may actually be a misnomer, but all of my life all I’ve wanted was to be happy--by which I  meant at peace in my soul, and not feeling like the sky was about to fall every moment.

When I was playing with becoming a Happiness Coach, my business coach Laura Naughton helped me  define the tag line for the Happiness Practice. “Happiness is a state of being in every day life.” It was a little play on words (which I love) because it is a state of BE ing as well as a way of behaving in every day life.

But I realize that Happiness is also a state of knowing.

In November, the sun disappears. The leaves are mostly fallen and the trees no longer seem beautiful. The wet starts to come in. November is, despite Thanksgiving, a kind of dank dark month for many of us.

Many people deal with depression during November. The cold saps the energy, the darkness makes us want to sleep more and hide in our caves. It is tempting to think we will never be happy and energetic again.

But we know, from past experience, that the cold and wet is a season, part of the cycle. We know that it will change again.  That there will be warmth again. That we will complain of the warmth again.

We know that the Sun exists out there, even when we can't see it. 

And like November, with Happiness we know that the depression, the difficult time, the tragedy, the sorrow, is a season.  We know there is something outside our pit or room or shrouding blanket of despair. We know that there is love all around us. And we know that we will feel it again.

We may not see the sun shining all the time, but we know that it is shining all the time. And we will see it again.

Meanwhile, may there be pretty lights and fuzzy socks and  warm drinks to help keep the smile in the month of November.