Create More Happy Memories

Happy Monday everyone! It took me awhile to get out of bed today. I had another night of restless sleep, probably because of the coffee I had with my dinner. Sweetie came in to check on me and told me we needed to order food. I still lay in bed long after he went out. I guess I wasn't trying to find a reason to get out of bed. It was one of those days. 

I used to jump out of bed to take a shower and then go straight to work. Things drastically changed in the past few months. I usually get up because I have to eat and drink meds. What got me out of bed today is a realization that I should get up and create more happy memories. 

Yestersday, 1SE* asked me, "How could you have made your day better?" I interpreted it as, "How could you have made it happier?" My immediate goal for now is to re-build my energy and stamina post-vaxx so I could serve my family better. That's my love language and I feel incomplete when I'm forced to rest**. 

At this point in my life I realized I just want to be able to create more happy memories with my family and friends. We can't do a lot of activities right now, but there are ways to make more happy  memories. Me and the boys have an ongoing daily chat that's been running for a decade already. It continues to evolve and one of the things we do everyday is out-do each other with funny gifs. We've also been trying to make each other envious of our daily meals. Simple things like that make us feel we're together. 

So, how could you have made your day better? What new happy memories have you created?

*1SE - one second everyday

**Really had to follow the rest period post-vaxx to avoid myocarditis.

CB////*Yr2/169 #StuckAtHomeDay/Yr2/192 #NewG278 #Home37 #Xmas89 #StayHome #BeKind

The Secret to Being Happy

Whew! Things are going back to normal. The past few days have been a bit hairy when I had to stop taking blood thinners for the test that was postponed. I'm not sure why I felt unwell. I even had a fever. It must have been caused by stress. I was really hoping that I wouldn't have to be poked for another test. I had prayed really hard that it wouldn't have to be done again. Well it wasn't, but it's going to be rescheduled haha. I think I need to make my prayer request clearer! 

My doctor sent me a nice video this morning. It's the speech of Gaur Gopal about how to increase happiness. To sum it up he said you cannot get away from problems, but you can make your life happier by living a life of thankfulness.

Being grateful is key to being happy. I shared to a friend something I learned from Chade Meng Tan on how you can immediately bring joy back. In the class I attended he shared you can simply be grateful for others. It goes this way... Yesterday, I saw a friend post about a nurse who took care of her family when they got infected by the coronavirus. It was a post to show her appreciation and gratefulness for the help. I immediately felt grateful for the help her family got from the nurse. God really sends guardian angels to help us. 

And that sustained me yesterday through my hospital stay. I was still feeling unwell last night, so I did a gratefulness exercise to feel better. I started by feeling grateful for the nurse who inserted the plot on my hand. When I ripped off the bandage I saw just a small dot from the needle, no bruising (that's rare!). Then I was grateful for the grumpy Gojek drive who still picked us up (he was insisting we put the wrong point lol). And best of all, I was grateful for Sweetie for staying with me the whole day. Sitting on a chair just waiting must've been very painful for him. My feet were still icy cold, but I felt much better when we went to sleep.

I realized that a lot of the life coaches are saying the same thing - be grateful to be happy. 

CB///*Yr2/146 #StuckAtHomeDay/Yr2/169 #NewG301 #Home59 #Xmas112 #StayHome #BeKind

My Happy Thoughts Project

I've been working on my happy thoughts project this past week. I copied all the thoughts my friends threw my way when I asked for happy memories they had with me.

After pasting all the thoughts on a Google Doc I looked for photos that matched the memory. I've been having a great time looking through my photo baul and I probably need to add more pages to the photobook.

I know it's hard to be consistently happy. I fall into a rut every week. My Kuya taught me a technique how to remove a bad feeling. Imagine that the bad moment is on TV then turn it into black and white. Replace the screen with a happy memory. Switch back to the bad screen. Then move back to the happy screen. Switch between screens fast and you'll naturally anchor on the happy screen.

Kuya explained to me that our tendency when bad things happen the thought becomes important. It's like a flashing sign in our mind. So the way to get our of the rut is to diffuse that thought and make it unimportant.

I realized just now that I used to do this often before. I used to print photos and have a lot of photo albums at home (in Manila). And I haven't done this for many years now. Ahhh, I should have done this a long time ago!!! Hope to finish this project soon :)