Valentine’s Day is around the corner and love is in the air. With heart-shaped goodies, chocolates, roses, love and romance everywhere, it’s that week of the year when it’s ok to be sappy. Or is it?
For a few years now, I’ve been on my own journey to understand and discover what really makes me ‘happy’. This short five letter word sometimes feels like a hundred. Almost four years ago, when I bought the business I thought life couldn’t get any better. I had my two beautiful kids, a safe home, incredible friends and now the business. Is this what happiness feels like? I still wasn’t sure. I was extremely grateful and very humble for everything but I still questioned it all, as I observed those around me.
If the key to happiness is to appreciate what we have, if it’s so simple, why are so many people unhappy? It can be a difficult one to comprehend. Just the other day I was flipping through the movie channel and came across Before Midnight. The movie was already halfway through and as I was about to change the channel, knowing I wanted to watch the entire movie another day, I heard one of the actors say, “At the end of the day it’s not the love of one other person that matters, it’s the love of life”. I rewound it about 10 times. And then it dawned on me, after all this time searching, is this what it’s all about? Is true happiness and love so connected? Are they one and the same?
Almost two years ago, I met two people, from two completely different paths, at about the same time. One has taught me how to live life in the moment and the other has taught me patience. Since most of my life I’ve been that hare and not the tortoise, this new journey of living in the moment with patience, was key for me to understand life, happiness and love in a different mindset. Happiness is not a happening; it’s a state of mind. It comes from mastering the art of appreciation: if you love your life, you’ll find that appreciation, that happiness, for everything around you.
It’s a continuous exercise and it doesn’t always come easy. I’ve found it helpful to pinpoint some things I’m extremely grateful for and count them every morning; my eyes, feet, children, my animals. Set aside a few minutes each day and contemplate these pleasures and feel gratitude for them – go ahead, love life and find your moments.
“Children have neither past nor future; they enjoy the present, which very few of us do” – Jean de la Bruyere
