{"id":63,"date":"2017-04-30T05:34:00","date_gmt":"2017-04-30T05:34:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ericamccann.com\/?p=63"},"modified":"2025-02-21T05:37:28","modified_gmt":"2025-02-21T05:37:28","slug":"choosing-to-be-happy-even-when-youre-not","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/ericamccann.com\/index.php\/2017\/04\/30\/choosing-to-be-happy-even-when-youre-not\/","title":{"rendered":"Choosing to Be Happy… Even When You’re Not"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I\u2019m a big believer in happiness. I\u2019m all about it. I love being happy, making others happy, and finding ways to be happy.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I read a book a while back that basically changed my life. I think it was called \u201cYou Can Choose to be Happy.\u201d I think I lent it to someone else cause I can\u2019t find it anywhere, but it\u2019s okay because the principles it taught me are basically ingrained in me now.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I don\u2019t think I had understood that concept before\u2026 that we can literally DECIDE to be happy. It was a game changer! I remember being offended by someone at a store or in a parking lot or something, and letting it bother me for a while, and then all of the sudden realizing, Hey! That person doesn\u2019t give a crap about this! They probably aren\u2019t giving it a second thought! So why the heck am I wasting time being irritated or angry or insecure when I don\u2019t have to?! <\/em><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Thinking that way gave me freedom like I\u2019d never known. I was no longer hostage to my feelings, no longer so reactive.<\/em> I started letting things go! It was amazing.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I remember reading in The Book of Mormon about Nephi and his brothers Laman and Lemuel and noticing how they went through a LOT of the same trials\u2013having to leave their home, going back and forth across the wilderness, facing hunger, sickness, etc\u2026 and yet those brothers all reacted SO differently. Nephi kept positive and happy and overcame his trials, while Laman and Lemuel threw fits and were depressed and angry and basically stupid about the whole situation. And it hit me\u2013 we CAN be happy even through trials! We can CHOOSE to lift our heads up, have faith that we will pull through, and make the most of it. We can also choose to hate our lives, but we will go through trials either way, so why not make it a little easier on ourselves?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

HOWEVER, I realized something recently.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s a lot easier to be happy\u2026. when life is awesome. Duh?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The past few weeks I have been a bit of a monster. I\u2019ve been grumpy, mildly resentful, and have just had a poor attitude. Why, you ask?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Because SOMEONE, who shall remain nameless, likes to keep me up in the wee hours of the night.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

And I do not do well on little sleep. I\u2019m basically a big baby about it.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

But last night I slept GLORIOUSLY. Like, I have been in such a good mood all day. That kind of sleep. The kind where you just float on clouds as you gently wake to sunlight and just\u2026 it\u2019s just so good.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

And now that I\u2019m human again, it occurred to me how hypocritical I\u2019ve been. I\u2019m all about preaching CHOOSING TO BE HAPPY, but when my circumstances were less than ideal recently, I was not happy. I didn\u2019t want to be. I almost couldn\u2019t be. My nerves were shot, my patience was gone, and it was just hard.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

So, I\u2019m re-committing to happiness. Cause looking back, I could have been happier. I would have still been tired, gotten mastitis, had a messy house, but I could have been happy and kinder to my family.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I wrote a song about this topic called \u201cYellow\u201d like, forever ago. I plan on recording it very soon and sharing it. But SOMEONE, who shall remain nameless, wants me to hold her all the time, so that will happen when it happens.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Until then, here\u2019s to being happy, and lets all try to be our best, happiest selves, even on no sleep! \ud83d\ude09<\/h2>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m a big believer in happiness. I\u2019m all about it. I love being happy, making others happy, and finding ways to be happy. I read a book a while back that basically changed my life. I think it was called \u201cYou Can Choose to be Happy.\u201d I think I lent it to someone else cause…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[42,41,40,16,23,21,25,19,33,17,35,39],"class_list":["post-63","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mom-life","tag-choose-happy","tag-happiness","tag-happy","tag-homeschool","tag-homeschool-life","tag-homeschool-mom","tag-mom-life","tag-momlife","tag-motherhood","tag-sahm","tag-singer-songwriter","tag-yellow"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/ericamccann.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/ericamccann.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/ericamccann.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ericamccann.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ericamccann.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/ericamccann.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":64,"href":"http:\/\/ericamccann.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63\/revisions\/64"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/ericamccann.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ericamccann.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ericamccann.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}