I Am Happiest When [No.14]

Posted by Jill Chivers in Happy

There’s nothing to do to get happy

I first heard this fairly early in my experiments with happy. This whole “nothing to do – everything to be” concept.

It blew the top of my head off.

I have become so accustomed to doing, doing, doing, busy, busy, busy.

It’s a badge of honour these days to be busy, isn’t it? Well, it has been for decades. I remember when I worked for a huge global advisory/accounting firm, we would boast about how many emails we got per day, and the more you got, the “better” you were somehow – the more wanted, or needed, or successful. Only 100 emails per day? Pah! Child’s play! Over 300? Okay, maybe you’re a player… maybe.

Crazy stuff.

And it isn’t all that different in the world of small business and the entrepreneur. In many circles I travel in (or traverse the fringes of), there’s much talk of how busy one is. How many calls on one’s attention and time. How wanted one is, by how many people.

It’s the same old “do this and you’ll be successful, therefore happy” absurdity we’ve been dished up and told to eat.

I’m not dining out on that dish anymore.

I am happiest when (#14):

I have tea out

My morning ritual includes my morning tea ritual. I love the performance of making tea – choosing which tea I’ll have today, brewing the loose leaves and letting it steep, straining and pouring, and savouring the delicious and sometimes delicate flavours. I find it a soothing practice, and it adds to my sense of starting the day on my terms, in a way that sets me up to have a great day. I enjoy tea wherever I have it, but it’s a little treat when I have it out, instead of at home.