“Would you recognize happiness if it bit you in the bum?” has now a video version. You can watch the available videos in the Vlog section or directly in my Youtube Channel https://youtu.be/6PMraLWYscM
Did you know that your brain is rewired when you are grateful? I know I have talked about this in my blogs before and it still fascinates me. So I ask you, is being grateful also knowing happiness when you feel it? There is something sad about the Joni Mitchell’s song “don’t it always seems to go that you don’t know what you got till it is gone”.
I was driving my 20-year-old four-wheeler, you know the kind of car that is just heavy to drive, it is diesel and shakes a little in neutral, you need strong legs to work the clutch and to turn the steering wheel I’m using most of my upper body.
So I was sitting in my not particularly comfortable old car, which I love by the way, on my way into the industrial part of Mahon (the capital of Menorca), there was a bit of traffic, so I was moving slowly towards a busy roundabout in a not particularly nice part of the island.
Suddenly I noticed that I was smiling, humming and had a feeling in my tummy as if I was looking forward to something very exciting. So my internal dialog, you know the voice in my head, said to me: you have forgotten something!” “it is typical! You are always so distracted”.
So I went through my appointments and what I had to do, and no I had not forgotten anything out of the ordinary, I was just going into Lidl to buy bread and then home to my daughter and our little dog Rosi.
However, I was humming and smiling with this feeling of butterflies in my tummy. And then it came to me; “OMG” my internal voice giggled to me, you are just happy “good old fashioned happy” and “you didn’t even recognize it, even if is biting you in the bum”.
So I made sure that I could remember the melody, the smile and the feeling in my tummy. You can store these things for a rainy day, you know and I did.
The next time I had a bad day, I reproduced the smile, I hummed the melody and the feeling in my tummy came back and this way I was able to change my mood by changing what I was hearing in my head and the way I had my mouth which in return changed the way I felt.
I show people how to do this in my workshops, first I have people thinking about a time when they were not so happy and register what they see, hear and feel and then I teach them turn it down. I then ask them to do the same for a time they were really happy and I teach them to turn it up.
It is strange but it always takes people longer to think about a time they were happy than a time they were unhappy so my suggestion to you today is to pay attention to the little things that make you happy.
And as Joni Mitchell sang “give me spots on the apples, but leave me the birds and the bees”
I hope you are as nice as you want to be and remember you can feel free to be happy.
Best wishes,
Ivalo
Post first pubished on October 19 2019