Key to Happiness - Truly Brave

Thursday, April 2:

 Key to Happiness

What do you think is the key to happiness? Is it being able to overcome a hard time? Laughter?
Maintaining a positive attitude? Tell us what you think and why. #HAWMC


I absolutely love this topic!

 I have spent a lot of time trying to figure this out. I have tried meditation, I have taken up hobbies and looked at so many ways to find the key to happiness myself.  I have attended a variety of workshops and eventually I got guidance from a life coach, Deb Dunn who promotes  laughter yoga, playshops for adults and encourages looking for JOY.



A pink paper Joy flower that I move around from time to time.

 

My daughter took my Joy flower and demonstrated fun for me.

 

I think my natural inclination is toward being a happy person (or I would not be singing crazy songs around campfires with Girl Guides and training to become a Recreation Therapist) but I have also experienced a lot of overwhelmingly sad times where I  found it very difficult to move forward with life. Lets face it, sometimes life can be really awful and as we experience these hard times we need to be sad and mourn for what we have lost. Some people become lost in the pain and the sorrow and have trouble finding their way out. The challenge is how to find a sense of  joy once again. 

I think we have to start with defining happiness. We all  know it when we are feeling it but what is it? Happiness can be defined as satisfaction with life and experiencing more positive emotions than negative ones. This can be very elusive state of being. Happiness or sadness impact your physical and mental well being, and that of those around you. It affects your ability to think, work, parent, sleep make choices and really just about everything about how you interact with your world.

Our Recreation Therapy courses including learning about the benefits of physical activities and mental stimulation but a big part of the training also consisted of learning how to meet all the needs of the individual. A recreation therapist tries to look at 6 different domains of life which are the cognitive, emotional, physical, social, spiritual and sometime vocational domains. This is considered holistic health and looking at the person as a whole results in an increased ability to bring health, peace and satisfaction to their life and yes, even happiness.

Todays blog writing prompt asks if  the key to happiness in being able to overcome
 a hard time. No I don't think so. Overcoming a hard time might give you pride and might make a difference in your circumstances but the sense of accomplishment is what is really making all the difference,-- It is an internal sense of personal value.

 I think happiness is not so much something to pursue as something to be open to. In the hard times you need to look for those moments of joy. You need to look for the adorable puppy, the smiling face, the sunny day. You need to be a person who look back on your life with forgiveness and remembers the happy moments. You need to be realistic and accept the bad things that have happened but you don't need to dwell on what that was like. You need to smile, sing, laugh, dance, hug, think new ideas and be a friend. You need to look for Joy and embrace it when and where you find it.

Here is the power of FUN!

Please look at this great video that features young cancer patients. When peoples lives are changed by an illness or injury what we need is to claim back bits of normal life, normal play!

Cyndi Lauper and Sara Bareilles, combine their songs 'True Colors' and 'Brave' to produce a song to raise money for the fight against pediatric cancer.

Daily Blogging during April

I decided to accept the challenge of blogging every day in April for the Annual Health Activist Writers Month Challenge. It is organized by WEGO Health which is an online hub for health activists.  WEGO sends out a list of daily topics to write about and I think most of them are very interesting. I did this challenge before and I learned a lot about myself and about blogging. I have had a lot of different experiences in the past couple of years and I think I will be writing from a very different view point this time.

Todays Topic:
Wednesday, April 1

Wordless Wednesday!
Since this is the start of HAWMC, post a picture that shows how excited you are for the next 30
days. We always love a good Health Activist selfie!  #HAWMC

So here you go!  This is what I looked like yesterday evening.  I was playing on my computer and our dog, Jasper, decided it was his turn to get some attention. Jasper and I are all settled in for a month of cuddling and blogging.

Is there life out there?

Grad is over, work is interesting  and I have some new challenges and new ideas that I want to write about very soon.  I don't want to leave that college part of my life without acknowledging all the wonderful people that I have met over the past two years.

Many of my classmates faced challenges last year while attending school. Financial problems, learning struggles, health issues, family demands and even the loss of loved ones made the journey harder. There were a lot of sacrifices made by many of my classmates and their families in the hopes of a better future.

Our teachers also faced some challenges in their lives but they still worked above and beyond to give us an extraordinary education, support us in our training for our new careers and they helped us learn about ourselves in the process.

I want to share a Reba song.
Here is to all the people who are trying to make a better life for themselves!



"Is There Life Out There"

by Rick Gilesen  Susan Long

She married when she was twenty
She thought she was ready
Now she's not so sure
She thought she'd done some living
But now she's just wonderin'
What she's living for
Now she's feeling that there's something more

Is there life out there
So much she hasn't done
Is there life beyond
Her family and her home
She's done what she should
Should she do what she dares
She doesn't want to leave
She's just wonderin
Is there life out there

She's always lived for tomorrow
She's never learned how
To live for today
She's dyin' to try something foolish
Do something crazy
Or just get away
Something for herself for a change

Is there life out there
So much she hasn't done
Is there life beyond
Her family and her home
She's done what she should
Should she do what she dares
She doesn't want to leave
She's just wonderin
Is there life out there

There's a place in the sun that she's never been
Where life is fair and time is a friend
Would she do it the same as she did back then
She looks out the window and wonders again

Is there life out there
So much she hasn't done
Is there life beyond
Her family and her home
She's done what she should
Should she do what she dares
She doesn't want to leave
She's just wonderin
Is there life out there

Is there life out there
So much she hasn't done
Is there life beyond
Her family and her home
She's done what she should
Should she do what she dares
She doesn't want to leave
She's just wonderin
Is there life out there