I Am Happiest When [No.5]

Posted by Jill Chivers in Happy

I’ve only been experimenting with happiness, what makes me happy and what I’m learning about happiness in general, for a few weeks now.

But I am already astonished at what I didn’t know about happiness. At how ignorant I was about the true source of happiness, and how much unnecessary worry, stress and angst I’ve allowed to dominate my life.

The thing is: I wasn’t unhappy all of the time.

I experienced many times of joy, calm, centeredness and connection. But it wasn’t consistent. I felt like I was on a roller coaster. Not one of those modern ones that you have to be strapped into like you’re on a mission to the moon, but more like one of those old-fashioned rattlers.

I couldn’t feel happy on a regular basis. My state of happiness was not something I could depend on. Without knowing how or why, my feelings of joy, calm, centeredness and connection could, and would, disappear.

Where did they go? And how could I get them back?

Part of my journey into the landscape of happiness has been a quest to find a more dependable source of happiness. Something less reliant on external circumstances.

Something more eternal, more abiding. And less fleeting and interruptible.

I hope you find what I share with you in my experiments with happy to inspire you to have your own experiments with happiness, and to allow yourself to be happier, more often.

I am happiest when (#5):

I am with my dad

I love my dad a lot. It’s actually difficult for me to talk about him, whether in writing or out loud, without getting choked up. That’s how much my dad means to me. I’m happy when I’m around him, no matter what we’re doing. Out at breakfast or on a picnic, at home reading newspapers, watching the History channel together.