“The truth is that happiness is an inner pursuit that is very different from the pursuit of pleasure or the amassment of a fortune.”  Deepak Chopra, MD

Over a decade ago I was riding along on a warm summers day and I spied.  I spied a woman playing with her children in the front yard of a simple home.  The home was little more than a shack.  The yard full of weeds.  It was evident there wasn’t an abundance in the way of finances.  They were laughing and being silly.  I remember thinking,  “It’s amazing how some can have so little and be so happy and I have so much and miserable”.  A ping of jealousy stabbed me in the stomach.  I couldn’t remember the last time I laughed and carried on in such a playful way.  I had changed.

It was then my long journey to heal, learn, and grow in self-love and life began.   At the time I didn’t recognize it as such.  I was still drinking and numbing away (hindsight).  My life was about running a couple of “successful” businesses (I’ll explain quotations another time), drinking after 5pm until I passed out most nights, and the weekend karaoke party and barbecue at my new home was all on me.  You’d think that with my extensive allowance for drinking I could have mustered a bit of HAPPY.   Nope – nowhere to be found.

A lot has changed since way back when.  Money no longer drives me.  But I’m not ignorant either.  You have to have money to live.   I love being able to gift my loved ones and support causes that I am drawn to.  Money can’t buy you happiness. 

Living a life always striving for peacefulness, acting from a place of love, and being grateful for all my blessings allow me to experience happiness fully when it pops up in all it’s yumminess.

If you haven’t felt happy in awhile take inventory.  Here are a few questions to get you started:

• When was the last time you felt genuinely happy?
• What were you doing?
• Who were you with?
• Where were you at?
• Has anything changed?  If so, what?
• What is within your power to do differently?
• What do you think you need to be happy?

Re-read  what I wrote that I do to be available when happy pops up :)

Don’t be afraid to try something completely random and different.  Play for goodness sake.  Be childlike.

Pink Cloud Coaching – Celebrating What Makes You Different. Ready to journey within?  Click here to Be-come

Be bold.  Be brave.  Be you.

– Teresa Rodden, Certified Life Coach