We just completed week 5 of The Happiness Path group, which is totally one of my favourites. We dive into how to handle heavy and difficult emotions.

Yesterday one MEGA insight that came through was:

If the goal is just to be happy, you are sure to feel like a failure.

For sure we all like to feel happy, calm, cool, and collected. But when it's the goal to always feel that way, any time we don't is going to feel like we've missed the mark somehow.

When I stopped making happiness my goal, it was actually so freeing. Don't get me wrong, I like feeling happy. I used to sign off with smiling emojis ☺️.

I think of happiness as the bonus, the perk!

Of what you might wonder?

Well of being more intentionally present and truly giving my nervous system some downtime.

Somewhere along the line, we got the message that we need to be doing, going, creating, always on and if we're not it's a bad thing- like we're lazy, unproductive, and not living our max potential.

Seeing where I can let go of patterns that aren't sustainable, saying No as a full sentence, and stopping to literally smell the flowers, has gifted me with the bonus of a whole lot more happiness in my life. I think because I'm not chasing it any longer, it's more of a natural side effect.

Here's a way to be more present that I've been practicing lately-

Taking 5-10 deep breaths.

On each inhale, I say to myself "I am"

On each exhale, I say to myself "here right now"

Don't have time for five deep breaths, start with one.

Let me know how it goes.

With gratitude,

Chantal

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