karmicdragonfly | Entries tagged with thankful

This past Christmas I bought a book as a gift. I didn't pay attention that it was coming from the UK, so I felt all special when I got a package from Royal Mail by Airmail! The British company included an additional gift, which they called a "Diary"...which doesn't mean the same thing in American English. The additional gift is what I would call a "Datebook" -- a diary in American English means a "personal journal", not a calendar!

In any event, I have no need for a Datebook -- I mean, we have electronic calendars now!

So as a way to remind myself of good things in my life, I decided to use the Datebook to record something I am thankful for each day. For example, today I recorded that I am thankful that I like to play with electronic things -- having just bought a couple of HomeKit connected plugs to turn lamps on and off with Siri. Mostly, this was just for fun, and I guess what I'm really thankful for is that I still like to play :)

But one worry I have had is that sometimes, I think I am just writing something quickly at the end of the day without really stopping and really thinking about what it is that I'm thankful for. I think I'll have to be sure to stop for a few seconds each day and consider why I'm writing what it is that I'm writing.

Maybe at the end of the year...or maybe the end of each month, I'll read the entries to remind myself....sort of a Buddhist meditation :)

And as I think of it, maybe I'm using this 'Datebook' as a 'Diary' lol, recording what I was thankful for!

If you asked me now to rate my happiness on a scale of 1 - 10, I think I would pick 6 right now. Being sick lately means I have been self-segregating from friends and co-workers, so they don't catch it, and also not feeling like getting out of the house leading to me feeling kinda lonely sometimes!

But on a normal day, yes I might select 7. But why not 10? Why am I 'generally' happy, but a little bit unhappy -- meaning, why would I select 7?

This fascinated psychologists. Nobody is fully happy all the time. But similarly, nobody is fully unhappy all the time either. It seems that humans, regardless of our external circumstances, live in a constant state of mild-but-not-fully-satisfying happiness. Put another way, things are pretty much always fine. But they could also always be better.

But this constant ‘seven’ that we’re all more or less always coming back to, it plays a little trick on us. And it’s a trick that we all fall for over and over again.

The trick is that our brain tells us, “You know, if I could just have a little bit more, I’d finally get to 10 and stay there.”

Most of us live most of our lives this way. Constantly chasing our imagined 10.

You think to be happier, you need to get a new job, so you get a new job. And then a few months later, you feel like you’d be happier if you had a new house. So you get a new house. And then a few months later, it’s an awesome beach vacation, so you go on an awesome beach vacation, and while you’re on the awesome beach on your awesome beach vacation,

https://qz.com/931385/youre-probably-searching-for-a-better-life-but-what-if-you-already-have-it/

The takewaway for me here might be that I need to be happy with what I have! A couple years ago, I started a daily practice of writing down what I was thankful for -- what was good in my life. But I only did that for a few days before I fell off the wagon.

Maybe I should start that practice again? I don't think I can commit to it daily. But maybe I can commit to writing at least 50 items?

So...#1: In my 50s, I have been able to learn (partially) another language, and I now have a new non-native English speaker as a friend from this!

I'll tag these as '#thankful'.

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Karmic-Dragonfly

Queer, (mostly) vegetarian, (mostly) Buddhist who lives with a very old Mulberry

Entries tagged with thankful

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