With February now upon us I want to encourage we turn our attention to ways we can “Feel February” and how we might enjoy being in the moment each day.
Take a moment and consider what focus and attention can you bring to living each day well during the month. What does February represent to you? Is it a time to enjoy the school break and travel? Is it a month represented by Valentine’s Day, a day dedicated to sharing love and affection? Is it a month that makes you yearn for winter yielding to spring, as it does elsewhere in the country?
I am advocating that a daily practice of attentional focus to discovering what makes you happy and brings contentment and glow.
William James, American philosopher is quoted” The greatest discovery of any generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitude”. Author Shawn Achor writes “It’s not necessarily the reality that shapes us but the lens through which your brain views the world that shapes your reality”.
We may not all be privileged to travel during school breaks, we may not all have love in our life from a primary partner, and we may feel dulled by winter and gray skies but we all do have capacity to alter our life lens, thinking and attitude. By doing so we shift from a negative perspective to one that reaches for happiness and glow.
Happiness can be found in the smallest things. Happiness brings a sense of glow and wonder. Happiness quite literally makes us feel better physically, not just mentally.
So think about how children find happiness in playing with a cardboard box not an expensive toy, how they love dandelions as much as roses, how time spent snuggling gives them security. As adults we can benefit from a focus directed to the little things that matter and add them deliberately to our “emotional savings accounts”, to know that “travel and adventure” can be enjoyed in our own community, that love can be felt with friends, pets, nature.
So, let yourselves create habits that turn our mental energy to accentuating the positive in our lives, in the moment, and to what matters to help us feel happiness and glow.
