I’m never quite sure how to start these things. Do I try to come up with some kind of a catchphrase opening? Do I just address you as if I’m talking to you? I’m not sure yet, but I’ll figure something out eventually. For now, welcome to another Thursday post, and thanks for stopping by!
I’ve been in a bit of a rut over the last month and a half or so. Admittedly (and surprisingly, if I’m being honest), doing these blog posts every week has been helping quite a bit, even if just temporarily. Being able to share stories about myself with someone (even if nobody is actually reading these, posting them allows me to feel as though they are) and working my obscure, random thoughts into something resembling cohesive storytelling is surprisingly therapeutic. Other than the blog though, there has been very little lately that has been able to pull me out of the rut. Most of my “bad day fix go-to’s” just haven’t had the oomph they normally do. So tonight, rather than continuing to manifest insanity (by doing the same things over and over and expecting a different result), I decided to switch things up.
I’m not entirely sure what made me have this thought (since I’ve never exactly been much of an Emeril Lagasse), but I was convinced today that instead of getting fast food or making a frozen pizza for dinner (again), making an actual dinner (for the first time in, admittedly, like a month) would help me feel better. I stopped by Meijer on my way home, grabbed a couple of steaks, some potatoes, and green beans, and went home and made up a good ol’ fashioned steak-and-potatoes dinner. I don’t know why, and I know it sounds pathetic and ridiculous, but just doing that actually did make me feel a lot better about myself. It also helped me to realize that happiness can be found anywhere if you look for it.
I don’t want this next part to come across as preachy in any way because, as I established earlier, I don’t always follow my own advice, and I don’t claim to know any “better” than anyone else – I just hope that being able to share some of what I know can help someone else.
It’s very easy to get in our own heads and convince ourselves that we’re not “good” enough or successful enough or we don’t have enough stuff, or just to generally feel bad for ourselves. I know because I’ve been feeling that way off-and-on for quite a while now. Quite often, when we’re in that mindset, we think that it would “take a miracle” to change it, or that something huge would have to change for us to feel better. That’s not the case though. Sometimes, all it takes is cooking yourself a ‘real’ meal. You can find happiness anywhere if you go looking for it in the right mindset.
I find happiness in many forms. It can be in discovering a new song or artist that I had never heard of before; finding an Easter Egg hidden in a game I’m playing; reading a passage in a book or a comic or something that speaks to me; seeing my dog; hearing my friends or family excitedly telling me something they just learned or that they’re passionate about; hell, even something as minute and mundane as making exactly the right amount of coffee in the morning to fit into my travel mug without overflowing. The point is: if you allow yourself to stay a prisoner in your own mind and allow yourself to dwell on the aspects of your life that you’re not happy with, you won’t recognize the things that happen every day that would make you happy, if you were in the mindset to recognize them and appreciate them. Life is hard. It’s when it is at it’s hardest that we have to choose to be happy. It’s much easier said than done a lot of times, but the effort is worth it.
I would love to hear what makes you all happy. Please feel free to leave comments below! Thank you again for joining me on my weekly ramblings. Like I said before, this is therapeutic and cathartic for me, and I appreciate any of you that take the time to read what I have to say – it really means a lot. See you all next week!
Musings Of A Struggling Creator 