Project Happiness Articles — strength

For someone who has spent a lot of time fighting for a more positive, fulfilled life and committing to never give up on attaining mental freedom, surrendering wouldn’t have come up as a word I ever particularly resonated with. It didn’t ooze the strength and tenacity that I wanted to exude; my mind equated it with weakness and would stubbornly avoid that idea of it.

I believe the majority of humanity can relate to the feeling of having our hearts smashed into pieces. I'm not a pro, thus my explanation would be more of a childlike one, but being middle age and having gone through some living experience, I've learnt 2 things.

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.

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.

It was a beautiful summer day without a cloud in the pale blue sky. I was a happy-go-lucky nine-year-old, soon to be ten, without a care in the world. 

I was teetering at the edge, staring below at uncertainty; crippled by fear and exhaustion, yet knowing I must take a leap of faith. That leap was my only path now, because behind me, all I could see was a landscape painted with potholes.