Project Happiness Articles — FreedomFriday

I’m talking about the fear that unfailingly comes up every single time we set out to do something expansive, something enriching that’s out of our comfort zone, and that likely even calls to us and inspires us. That’s where COURAGE comes in. Courage is the ability to meet our fear and to overcome it, to show up and take action, despite it.

Regardless of my ‘over-achiever’ personality and how proud I should be, I would doubt everything constantly. Travelling taught me that I would still doubt life choices and push myself more than I could handle at times. Travelling solo taught me how to deal with these situations, take a step back, breath, smile and appreciate all the little things, which are essentially the bigger things.

Everyone wants to be happy, yet no one seems to know how to do it. The act of being happy has sparked a lot of discussion and thousands of studies have been conducted trying to solve the problem with happiness. Psychologists and scientists seem to have found the solution: little habits create big changes and lead to happiness.

So, the unerring thought that hit me when I turned 50 was, “Why do I look old but feel 27?” I imagine most of us feel much younger but we adhere to society’s rules, pack away our padded shoulders, big hair and Jelly shoes and sit on the sidelines from now on in.

Along the way one teenage girl who was taking a break from snowboarding asked me if I was “crazy” for doing it, so I informed her that I was healthy for doing it. One guy who was sitting with his friend trying to encourage him to continue boarding on down the mountain said to him at least he wasn’t hiking like this gal!

I can’t tell you the amount of times I’ve looked back at decisions I’ve made, often the frightening or difficult ones, and had an incredible amount of gratitude wash over me. Gratefulness for that one person who had the guts to take a leap; my past self.

Change can be a blessing or a curse; it depends on how we perceive it.  It’s fair to say that every one of us know someone going through some kind of change. It may be you. Just look at the state of our society and the world, if you dare. Change can arrive swiftly, without warning; the familiar can turn on a dime. 

This isn’t to make one feel sorrow for people with less but to make one understand that often our happiness has already been achieved and that we are simply programmed to want more and more and more and more.

"Whatever you can do or dream, you can begin. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Begin it now." - Goethe, Johann Wolfgang

Sleep later! Right now you need to be awake to see this! In our day to day lives, so many people don't really see. They may go outside, but they don't see the beauty of the sky, the trees, the water, the stars.