What's Your Bedside Mini Fridge?

Today was a great meeting of the minds with some girlfriends and as usual we all discussed our lives. Today I discussed openly the problem I have with negativity, not just my own but others and how when I am trying to be positive how their negativity drives me nuts. It’s truly a great group of women you are speaking with when you don’t just walk away feeling heard but also with sound advice. Two things stayed with me after our conversation, first that I can only control my behavior (although I take that as a challenge ;) lol and second that happiness is a choice and we all have to choose it for ourselves, I can’t make that choice for another. (again a challenge) 

I thought to myself, that what I can do though is live my boring little life in such a manner that people think, if she can be that happy all the time then I can too! Then I can pray that it makes it seem that much more attainable for themselves and they too will choose to find happiness. So that’s my challenge for myself to try to have as few “down days” as possible and to hopefully bring others up in the process. I always tell myself throughout the day that "we don't get today back" and it's true so spend it the best you can.

Everyone comes from different circumstances, upbringings, lifestyles, etc., we are all so unique and happiness isn’t going to be the same or feel the same for any of us. So where do you start? How do you know if you are living your best life, being your best you? We all have our days where we are feeling unsatisfied, unbalanced, torn down and helpless but are you overall happy? Not just saying the right things, doing the right things, going through the motions but happy? If not how can you get there? 

I have always been a glass half full person but not always been able to find that feeling in every day occurrences. I was more a big picture person, if I was having a major problem I could usually see there were people who had is worse, it would pass, etc., but I just lived life going through the motions not really stopping to enjoy the little things in life. These days I am a truly happy person daily and I think it’s primarily because I have found a way to never end a day with unresolved feelings and a way to find joy in those everyday moments.  For me it really boils down to small simple choices that one by one add up to making you feel in control of your happiness and contentment. So my solution to all of this and what keeps me pretty positive most of the time is finding joy and laughter in the mundane things. 

There are my “have tos” for the day that can drag me down but I find a way to make them enjoyable. For example, I love my coffee in the morning, I love sipping it, thinking about the day, planning in my head but I hate to wait for it and no one wants to be around me during that period of time so my husband makes it for me the night before on a timer and waking up to it is a simple pleasure I get to kick my day off with. Driving the kids around in the car from here to there can make me feel like a chicken with my head cut off wasting away the day but instead I made a Mixed CD for the car of our favorite songs and we pop it in and have great concerts, if you are ever at a red light and want some entertainment look for the Maroon Honda CR-V. I loathe doing dishes, laundry, cleaning etc. but I love good music so I will put Pandora on and pause for dance offs with the kids often. I am wiped and unmotivated by bed time so sometimes I put on a snuggie backwards and fly the kids to bed, or offer turn down service where I put them to bed with a British accent and ask them if they would like a wake up call in the morning, they belly laugh and always request a mint on their pillow. I hate how when you are a parent you can’t just crawl into bed and have a pity party when you feel like it, so if I am having that kind of day I will get the whole family dressed up and we will literally have a pity party. Some days I don’t feel like dragging my big behind to the gym so I will dance treadmill at home, ever try the Cupid Shuffle at 4.0 with a 2 percent incline? lol (I have a video, maybe one day I will post it) ;p; 

I recognize these solutions are a little crazy and off the beaten path and acknowledge they don’t always work, some days are just crappy days, but most of the time they do and I will keep doing them for that reason. Plain and simply, I refuse to be someone that one day looks back and says, where did my life go? Why didn’t I really live it?  Take time to enjoy it? I hope you won’t either. 

What’s your challenge right now? What can you do to add random silly things into your day to up your happiness level? 

This is my latest and greatest..... 

One of my favorite parts of a vacation is that part of the day when you wake up on your own, no alarm, have coffee in bed and discuss the day. Only I can’t survive on having that just a few times a year. I want that 365 days a year! So although I think my husband thinks I was half joking when I told him last night I was really doing this this time, today I ditched my nightstand and moved our mini fridge from the garage next to my bed. I am ditching the alarm clock and waking up to freshly brewed coffee bed side with all the fixings in the fridge every day starting tomorrow morning!!!!  Why not right? It’s my life and I am going to live it. 

What’s your bedside mini fridge? What can you do today to increase your happiness and are you going to do it? I hope so. 

P.S. - Aaron will find out that this is what is in our bedroom when I send him the link to this blog at work. ;) I’ll let you know how it goes. :) But I bet he’ll love having coffee in bed with me in the morning.