Project Happiness Articles — GratiTuesday

I’ve made the song You&Me for my daughter Eline with Down syndrome (Ds) to let her know how much I love her and to raise Ds awareness. I went from shock and disbelief at birth to acceptance and love…but most of all I gained the insight that the negative way society and medics look at Ds is not true.

We need to follow and listen to our inner guidance “GPS – Gratitude, Purpose, Soul” system! Our Zen Intuition will always lead us along the divine path, but we need to listen and have faith that we are in the right place, at the right time, doing the right thing.  

I think about that afternoon when we played touch football in the park, with winter fast approaching. I remember the smile on my brother’s face. How he did the best with what he had and how it was enough. How it can always be enough, if we learn to accept 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.

Kindness. It costs nothing to give but can be invaluable to another. It seems like a very obvious ‘no-brainer’ to make use of to help in our own lives, and the lives of others. So how can there be such an absence of it in the world at times? The answer, hurt.

In all ways, I believe this is true. At the very burning, volcanic diamond-centers of ourselves, we are complete. Enough. Multiversal. I do, however, have trouble reconciling this truth with my inherent impulse to try and improve myself constantly.

The trap I was falling into was the tendency to judge each and every experience on the scale of my likes and dislikes. If we truly want to learn how to embrace each moment of our lives, rather than pulling some close and pushing others away, we need to understand that a sensation is neither desirable nor undesirable.

But despite finding ourselves in an environment of ever-increasing apathy and self-centeredness, there are actually a multitude of ways to generate a positive impact through practicing altruism, showing compassion, and most importantly, by taking real action.

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.