I smile big. I laugh hard. I dance and jump. I express gratitude, I am passionate and a dreamer!
Some people are completely off and confused. They think if you are smiling, laughing, and thankful, then everything must be just peachy. In my experience, it works the other way around:
Passion and gratitude breed happiness!
We all experience issues, emotions, and circumstances that feel everything but pleasant. That is inevitable. It is not about ignoring those and thinking you can just put a band-aid on them.
I recently went through a time in which I just cried non-stop for a few days. It isn’t healthy to try and pretend the pain is not there. It is real.
The key is to grieve and move on.
In the Dominican Republic, when someone dies, people mourn for 9 days and then have a religious ceremony to pretty much celebrate their lives and express any last emotions or get the pain out. For 9 days you wear black (maybe a hint of gray and white here and there) and you do not dance, sing or even laugh out loud. “There is a time for everything under the sun.”
Mourning is important and I have seen the value of it when I have lost something or someone. It’s not that you don’t feel the pain anymore, it’s paying your dues and knowing you are done and it’s time to move on.
It hurts, it takes time, and it requires discipline, willpower, and self-control… but it is worth it. Don’t dwell on the pain and choose to be happy in spite of it.
They say “the happiest people on Earth are not those who have the best of everything but those who make the best of everything.”
I wholeheartedly believe that: Happiness Is A Choice.
I choose to smile, laugh, enjoy meaningful moments, and have gratitude for what I have. Do YOU?
Founder of the Positive MOM® and creator of the S.T.O.R.Y. System: a blueprint to craft and share powerful stories that will transform your results and help others do the same. Dr. Elayna Fernández is a single mom of 4, an award-winning Storyteller, Story Strategist, and Student of Pain. She’s a bestselling author, internationally acclaimed keynote speaker, and 5x TEDx speaker. She has spoken at the United Nations, received the President’s Volunteer Lifetime Achievement Award, and was selected as one of the Top Impactful Leaders and a Woman of Influence by SUCCESS Magazine. Connect with Elayna at thepositivemom.com/ef and follow @thepositivemom. To receive a gift from Elayna, click HERE.
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