Wednesday, August 08, 2012

Becoming the Happy Writer

As a fairly reclusive individual, and one painfully aware of crowds, I'm constantly on a quest to find peace. Once I find tools for inner peace, I fight hard to  maintain them. Those tools give me confidence, and when making appearances, I grip those tools like a life preserver on a sinking ship.

In the last post I spoke about keeping up with the government environment that used to be so instilled in me. Today, I talk about zen living. I have a yoga friend who I greatly admire, who is so grounded and so aware of her surroundings that her calm flows out to all those around her. She has an endless array of friends, some that would drive me bat-crazy, but she manages to rein them all into her peace. And they all want to be like her.

One of my favorite websites with great lessons on good living is DailyGood.  It is one of the very few websites out there that can make me slow down and just enjoy the reading. I walk away with so much that makes my life feel better.

An archived piece entitled "15 Things You Should Give Up to be Happy" is my gift to you today. It's just marvelous, and I swear, I'm going to incorporate this mentality in my writing somehow . . . as a minimum in one of my conferences speeches.

1. Give up your need to always be right.

2. Give up your need for control.

3. Give up on blame.

4. Give up on self-defeating self-talk.

5. Give up your limiting beliefs.

6. Give up complaining.

7. Give up the luxury of criticism.

8. Give up your need to impress others.

9. Give up your resistance to change.

10. Give up labels.

11. Give up on your fears.

12. Give up excuses.

13. Give up the past.

14. Give up attachment.

15. Give up living your life to other people's expectations.

You can feel the burdens lift off your shoulders just reading the list, can't you? When we aren't so stubborn, we feel better. When we're more open, we feel better. Somehow I can't help but think that we'd write better, too.

6 comments:

Karen said...

I LOVE this post and DailyGood. Someone turned me on to it a few months ago and I love the messages and peace that it brings into my life.

I just shared your blog post on my facebook fan page- http://www.facebook.com/runningwithkaren as I think your message is perfect for runners (and everyone else too)!

Sarah Schlosser said...

Great post...I know when I'm reaching a danger level on my control issues when I rearrange the furniture just to have something to control. Thanks for the reminder to just "be."

Mindy said...

Great post! Control--getting it,and learning to release it--is a major issue that midlifers must Deal with. A list like this can serve as a motivational reminder of what needs to be done to keep us going strong on into our later years.

Charles Perry said...

I too like the post, though means I must give up ALL bad habits. Going to be difficult. Though worth it .
Charles Perry

Janet Hartman said...

I get everything on this list except "attachment." Aren't we "attached" to our friends? Or does attachment mean dependency in this context?

Hope Clark said...

Janet
I believe it means dependency on something to be happy. You can't be happy otherwise, or only they can make you happy.