The New Begins Today

There has been a lot of lessons that I have learned and ways of personal growth that I have explored and am doing.  The posts of those lessons have been good to share, and I will note them in the future at times.  However, I have been feeling the desire from within and as a result of my development that my focus must change both in my own life and the large part of this blog.  I have spent a lot of time discussing the change andon the topic of what are good ways of thinking and things to be doing to help to move from paths that does not lead to long term happiness to foundational ones that do.  But, I don't want my own thinking or this blog to be stuck in the transition or change period, just as it is not good for you to be stuck there, either.

Therefore, I am going to be taking a focus in my life and my blog to actually be LIVING the new life and BEING the better me that I have been becoming.  I do realize that this blog post is talking about the change, but I desire the future ones to be posting about the good without need for context that brought it there or transformative life lessons.  At some point on the journey to happiness, you must allow yourself to just be happy.  It isn't something I have not been doing.  I have already been chooseing to focus on the positive and growth and hope.  But, especially as my date of my move to my new location is approaching, I want to focus on the good that is found in my day and what I like about myself and more.  

So, my social media will become more personal to me and my life joys and successes, and my lessons in this Forward to Happiness blog will have a lot more examples I share of being... happy.  My old posts will still be out there and I am continuing to work to get them indexed.  But, just as my playlists often lead to a good ending, I am going to move my life, daily, to reflect that for myself, as well.. not because I found someone with whom to share it all but because I found myself to experience it.  It's time that that began.

The Light is Still Traveling

I came across a short video on Instagram the other day and is included in my reshares, but I thought it had a great point that could be combined with another thing that I have referenced off and on over the years of my blog and is good to remember and a good reminder, even for myself.

The video shows the stars, and it says that we shouldn't see black in space, if we saw all the stars that were out there, because if you look in any direction you would run into a star, eventually, which would be light.  That light should be traveling to us and shouldn't dim, so why is it that we see darkness?

The answer is that the light from all of those stars has not GOT to us, yet.  It is traveling at an incredible speed, but it has a LONG distance to pass in order to get to us.  I thought about that, and I thought how true that is for our lives and life events, too.  It is sorta like a song in my playlist last month about when God says not yet.  Not yet does not mean no.  It means not yet... there could be stages of growth that we need to do, or it could simply mean that we are not in the place or ability to have it at this time.  The light of our future happiness has just not got to us yet.

The thing that I have used in the past to talk about this was a mini series that was on many years ago called The Triangle, and it was about the Bermuda Triangle and weird things that were happening there.  In the mini series, the events got closer together as time progressed, because the event that was causing them was projecting out in TIME as well as distance, so the event that was the source just had not happened yet.

Just like the stars in the sky, there are many points of happy light that will happen in our lives, and we cannot see them all at once.  And, I don't think we WANT to, really... why spend all of your life unhappy and then have all your happiness at once.  Better to be happy all along the way with one thing or another.

So, when it feels like it is taking a long time to get to one thing or that something is lacking or you are focusing on a dark spot in your life sky, why not be patient for that light to come and focus on what you CAN see and enjoy in the days of your journey.  While there is dark in the sky, there is light, as well.  And, that light is very beautiful in contrast to the dark and makes for a very peaceful and relaxing wait, if you just take the time to observe and enjoy the days along the way.

Feel it All

There is a particular responsibility that comes with letting yourself feel your emotions.  You have to feel it all.  We are not cartoon characters that only display one emotion and one side of their personality.  We have complex emotions and at any given time can and often do feel many things, even those things that can be at contrast.  I say cartoon, but I guess the Inside Out cartoon was multiple feelings at once.  That would be more accurate.

Because the truth is that we are hardly ever just one way, just as our days are not just one way.  There can be good and bad, and both are valid.  I saw a meme online the other day of Dr Who saying that the good of a day does not solve the bad, nor does the bad take away from the good.  That is very true.  I am always a mix of things, and I try my best to keep them compartmentalized, because it is indeed true that if you are always focusing on the bad emotions, you can miss out on so much of the good things that can happen in your life.  However, to focus on the good things without allowing yourself to feel the bad can rob you of necessary healing and growth that needs to be done.  So, I wouldn't expect anyone that I ever met to be "over" the bad things in their past or the challenges of their present.  We all have them, even if we forgive and make peace with those that did them.  All I would expect is what I try to do myself.. turn the page, recognize the past is the past and look to see what the next chapter in our lives might hold.. albeit with the growth that we gain from the prior chapters in understanding others as well as ourselves.

So, if someone were to see me smiling a lot or laughing, it does not mean that there is not a part of me that is also reflecting on the past.  That is impossible, as we will always have things that remind us of people from our past.. a location, a fandom, a show or movie, or even a sport or hobby.  To deny that is to force yourself to come face to face with it.  But, you can make new memories in those things, as well as accept that those good memories of the past are valid and can be accepted as good.. in the past.  You are not tied to a specific emotion, and others are not able to be judged as 2 dimensional either.  There can be good, even in the stories that you no longer read.  And, spending our lives trying to fictionalize that good will only elongate our journey to find truth and joy in the future.

So, I allow myself to feel it all.  I allow myself to accept good and bad, love and strain, loss and rebirth.  I allow myself to accept the good that I felt was good that I felt, even as I use reason to guide my path forward.  Indeed, that is a skill we must develop if we are going to make wise decisions for our future path, apart from hormones and emotions that we will face.

So, this post is simply to challenge you to feel it all, if you are really going to see a true picture of reality. Then.... as you let the emotions flow through you.. let them flow from you and let it go.  Take a breath.  And, look and start stepping forward.  Happiness can happen, again, and holding onto the negative will only blind your ability to see and experience it.  And, I wouldn't wan that loss for anyone, least of all myself.