Journaling Prompt: The Power Of Deciding To Be Happy

This is a journaling session that will challenge our perspective on happiness and peace. This is an invitation to ask ourselves a powerful question: Can I be at rest? Can I be peaceful, even when life is far from perfect?

Today, we explore the choice we all have – the choice to be happy and at peace, regardless of external conditions. Often, we put our joy on hold, waiting for that elusive moment when everything aligns perfectly. But is that the only way?

This session dares to ask the crucial question: Do you want to be at peace? Can you stick to the 'yes' when everything goes awry? This is a call to empower ourselves, as no one can grant you this permission but us.

Transcript

So welcome to today's journaling session. Hopefully you have a pen and paper with you. If not, Why don't you quickly go and grab it? The topic for today is can I be happy? Can I be peaceful? Although the things are going crazy in my life. Can I be at rest? Write down at the top of your page this question. Can I be at rest? Can I be peaceful? While life is going at a high intensity. Normally what we do is we pause our peace, We pause our happiness until this thing passes away. Sometimes it's a matter of a few hours and sometimes it's a matter of a few days. So the question pertains to something very relevant aspect of our life where despite whatever is happening, Whether in our professional life, Whether personal life, Social life, Family life, Finances, Can I be peaceful? Even though the conditions are not perfect. Of course, When we phrase the question that way, The instinct, The surface level instinct is to say, Yes, Of course I can be peaceful. But the deeper level tendencies hold us back and say like, Oh, If I can be peaceful in unperfect or imperfect conditions, When can I be suffering? When can I be miserable? Because somehow we have made a contract with ourselves that we will hold our happiness or peace hostage until the conditions are met. And this decision, When comes into effect, Can be felt very palpably in our bodies, As a ball in our stomach, As a weight on our chest. Suddenly our choices become downgraded. We wouldn't want to go out and eat and celebrate, Even if there is a reason to do it. We would intentionally be melancholic. No, No, No, No. It's, You know what, I'll do this after this thing passes away. Once this happens or when these people leave my house or when this situation, The result of this situation comes forward, Yes, Then I can breathe. But until then I'm going to hold my breath. So the question, Can I be peaceful? Can I be at rest? In imperfect conditions is an invitation to reflect on this habit. As I'm saying these words, I can sense the discomfort that this might be causing in your mind, In your body. What would I do if I cannot be unhappy? That's the familiar, That's the known. How can I give up the known? The arguments are, How can you be so insensitive? How can you celebrate when this big thing is happening? How can you relax when all hell is breaking loose? How can you be peaceful when this person has left your life? Being sad is not a choice. Sadness is a fleeting cloud that passes by when the memory of our loved one touches our heart. But being sad is a decision. Being overwhelmed is a decision. Overwhelm can come and go just like any other feeling. Staying overwhelmed is a decision. It all points back to the question, Can I be peaceful when things are not perfect? And a corollary to this question would be, Can I stick to the yes? If you answered yes, Can I stick to this yes when things are not perfect? We are in a quicksand of our past habits' momentum, Ready to pull us in. But staying unhappy, Staying restless is a very intimate decision and we are all free to do it no matter where we are in the aging cycle, Where we are in the condition cycle, No matter what we are going through. Anyone can be peaceful when things are perfect. Our true character comes in, Our true grit, Our true commitment comes into picture when we are at rest, At peace, Where things don't make sense. So the corollary that I asked was a question that comes after this question. I'm gonna leave you with a question that comes before the main question we asked. So the question we asked earlier, The first one was can I be happy, Can I be at peace when conditions are not perfect? The sub-question we asked was can I stick to yes when things go awry? But what is stopping us from saying yes if we haven't said yes so far is the pre-question, Namely, Do I want to be at peace when things go awry? Do I want to be happy? You can be happy if you wanted to. You can stay happy, You can stay at peace if you wanted to, But nobody is going to give you this permission if you don't give it to yourself. Nobody is going to make this decision for you if you don't make this decision for yourself. There's a temptation in me to tell you that yes, I give you permission, But my permission means nothing to you. The permission needs to come from within to mean something. Do you want to be at peace? Can you be at peace? And can you stick to the yes? I'll leave you with a little story that I read in one of the books. I think I may have said this story earlier, But let's say we get a phone call telling us something quote-unquote bad and we are at home hosting a party. All our friends and family are at home and while this phone call mandates us to be sad because that's the decision we have made when we get some bad news, We have to be sad or angry. We've also made a decision prior to this phone call that I'm the host, I'm gonna play the host well. In this situation, I'm sure we have gone through something similar many times in our life. So in this situation, Do we honor our previous decision to being a good host and continue the festivities, Albeit a little diluted? Yes, I'm sure. Or do we just kick people out saying, You know what, I'm sad. This is what I've learned and I'm gonna go into my shell. No, What we do is we honor our previous decision and when that decision is complete, Namely when the people leave, When the guests leave, We pick up becoming sad or angry and process what has happened. Which means we have a choice and again, This is a lame analogy to at least make a point. But the real way of handling it would be to handle it with a decision and a strategy. And there are strategies for dime a dozen, But the decision comes from within. The ball is in your court. Thank you.