happiness is a choice
happiness is a choice
‘Happiness is a choice’ Valerie Bertinelli.
Happiness may be a choice but sometimes it can feel impossible to choose it. When my autoimmune diseases cause a flare, and I’m tired and aching and struggling with the simplest of tasks, then I don’t feel happiness is a choice for me. It can be difficult living with autoimmune diseases and often you feel that no one understands how you feel. I have often been told I don’t smile enough but somedays when the flare is particularly bad, I just don’t feel like smiling!
At the end of each day though, I get out my journal and I write three things that I am grateful for that day. The day may have felt terribly long and the fatigue almost unbearable but I make myself write three things down. It could be that someone made me a drink at work, or a cashier smiled and asked me how I was, or I got to watch some tv or read a book and have a quiet moment to myself.
As time has passed I found this journal therapeutic. It is nice to look back at the end of each day and pick out highlights from it. It is also great to look back and see all the happy and grateful moments I have had.
As a Health Coach, I often start people with a journal and suggest they write three things they are grateful for each day. It can be a real struggle to think of these things at first, but with time and practice and patience, it opens up a world to you that makes the flares of autoimmune diseases easier to cope with and you realise they will not last and that each day does hold moments of happiness.
