On the serious business of happiness....

Riot clean up, St John's Hill, Clapham Junction

Hello readers! I'm back. I've been on a field trip and then when I returned to Windhoek I was distracted by the terrible news of the riots, violence and looting in UK's towns and cities. I was gobsmacked and worried about my family and friends and I wondered how this could happen? Even my home community, Clapham Junction, was badly affected, shops and businesses were smashed up.  But then I was encouraged by the outpouring of real community spirit and love as people flocked onto the streets of our towns and cities, in their marigold gloves and waving their brooms to join hundreds of others in riot clean up.

Scenes of calm but strong defiance. Anyway I'm still processing my thoughts and feelings about these events.

Meanwhile I've been contemplating happiness again and you may remember a few posts back that I suggested that happiness is a choice. Well I've just stumbled across a trailer to a film on YouTube called "Living Luminaries - on the serious business of happiness" which explores this further. You may have seen it already but it is the first time I have and I now would like to watch the whole film.  Here's the clip to whet your appetite. Are you ready for the journey to happiness?

Happiness is.....

....a choice.  When you wake up in the morning you have a choice. You can start the day believing it to be a day of opportunities, filled with hope, love, laughter, adventure and interesting encounters or you can get out of the bed the wrong side, dreading the day ahead, thinking that it will be full of unwanted challenges, irksome people, stress, mistakes and anguish. Why even choose the latter? Why do we do this to ourselves? We can be our own worst enemies by succumbing to negative patterns of thinking and behaviour. Yet the alternative is there to be grasped. We don't have to wait to be happy. Happiness can be found, here, now in the present moment if we choose it to be so.