Stopping for Happiness
I was driving to an appointment a couple days ago and my route took me through one of those aggravating stretches where the traffic lights seems to be intentionally designed to impede your progress. It was important for me to be on time for my meeting, and I started growing more tense and anxious with every stop I was forced to make.
But then something wonderful happened. At the fifth or sixth stop, it occurred to me that my mood wasn’t going to change the traffic patterns, but that I could change my mood. What if, I asked myself, I used every stop as a chance to practice happiness? So I whipped out my favorite question, “Why am I so happy now?” and made up my mind to look for answers every time the traffic came to a halt.
I was disgruntled enough that when I first asked it, my interval voice belligerently said, “I’m not!” But I knew how to counter that. “I know you’re not,” I said out loud. “But why am I so happy now?”
It works every time. The mind can’t resist looking for answers when you pose it a question. “Well, because you’re silly enough to be playing this game,” it said. I actually laughed.
“Okay. Why else am I so happy now?” And the answers simply started pouring out. I was happy that I was going to this appointment. I was happy that my car was running well and that the sun was shining and that it was a beautiful day.
The light turned green and I noticed that my mood had considerably brightened. At the next red light, more answers started coming. And at the next one, even more. By the time I got to my appointment—on time, no less—I was relaxed, centered and in a wonderfully positive frame of mind.
The experience was such a powerful one for me that I have now officially adopted red lights as a happiness trigger. I use them to do mental gratitude lists, to tune into the sights and sounds around me, to adjust my posture and relax tensed muscles, to practice some rhythmic breathing.
I invite you to give it a try, and to invent some happiness triggers of your own.
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