forgot to be happy

“I was so upset, I forgot to be happy.”

Eeyore, Winnie the Pooh

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Well. Dwelling on the crap on our life is easy … too easy in fact.

I would suggest it is one of life’s slipperiest slopes.

I would also suggest all the while, dwelling and being on the slippery slope, stops us from being happy.

Even trickier? Once on the slippery slope, even if you say in your head “brain … stop thinking this way’, and you do actually stop … well … its hard to climb back up the slope.

I sometimes think just one person, or someone alone, can’t get off the slippery slope.

I admit.

I am not sure about that.

But. Forgetting to be happy isn’t about unlearning something or even <most of the time> learning anything new. It is much simpler. You have just forgotten.

And I imagine I am simply suggesting that you need someone else to remind you.

Regardless.

If you think about this topic this way, we see a boat load of people every day who have simply forgotten to be happy and maybe, just maybe, they need someone to remind them to be happy.

You don’t have to ‘bring sunshine to their day’ or be one of those ‘everything in the world is good so why are you unhappy’ type people or anyone with some wacky exuberant naive Pollyannish view of Life.

You do have to pull the person off the slippery slope onto some solid flat ground.

That’s it.

No more, no less.

Maybe this is a good place to end. A reminder that sometimes small actions can contribute to bigger things like happiness. Because, as Eeyore suggests, sometimes we just forget to be happy.

I know.

It sounds silly.

But it is true.

So let me end by giving another Winnie the Pooh thought on how to remind someone to be happy:

“You are braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.” 

Christopher Robin

Pretty wise for a kid.

Nice pep talk for someone on the slope who has forgotten to be happy.

The Listening Society: Hanzi Freinacht