There’s
a tendency to get caught up in stressful and challenging tasks of our day, the
urgency of what’s coming up, the distractions of being online.
And
we forget to smile.
In
the rush of the day, the stress of wanting things to happen a certain way, we
lose the enjoyment of each moment.
In
every moment, there’s the capacity for happiness. It’s not that we need to be
ecstatic, full of pleasure, excited or even joyous each and every second of the
day. Who needs that kind of pressure? And it’s not that we can never feel
sadness or anger or stress. It’s that we can
feel happiness, in some form, any moment we like, even in the midst of stress
or sadness.
And
it’s exceedingly simple. We just need to remember to smile.
You
can smile in each and every moment.
OK,
maybe you don’t need a smile on your face all day long — your cheeks will feel
tired. But we can smile more, and in between physical smiles, we can have an
internal smile.
Try
an internal smile now: have a calm, unsmiling face, but think of the miracle of
this moment, and find a thought to smile about. Feel the smiling feeling
inside. Isn’t that amazing?
Some
ideas:
- You have someone in your life who cares about you.
- There is beauty all around you, in many forms.
- You are generous, compassionate, and good-hearted.
- You have someone you can help.
- You have eaten today.
- You can move.
- You can see the sun shining.
- You can appreciate the leaves of a tree, rain falling, wind blowing.
- You can taste chocolate.
- You get to spend time with someone you love.
- You have music in your life.
- You get to create something.
And
so on. You probably don’t have all of these, but you might have one or two, and
if so, that’s a more than good enough cause to smile.
You’ll
forget to smile in some moments, because your mind gets caught up in stories
about the past, stresses about what might happen in the future. None of this is
happening right now — it’s just movies playing in our heads.
Instead,
remind yourself of what’s happening right now, and see the beauty in it, see
the reason to smile. And then smile, externally and internally.
This
changes your day, because now instead of being caught up in stress and stories,
we are present, and happy. We can be content with every moment.
It
changes your life, because too often we miss the smile-ability of life when we
are not paying attention.
_________________
Effective
stress management is all about self care.
If you
want to stop using food to manage your stress you have to care
for your whole self and create a protective self-care bufferzone.
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