“It isn’t what you have, or who you are, or what you are doing that makes you happy or unhappy. It is what you think about.” Dale Carnegie
I thought that chronic pain made my world small, but this pandemic has made my world even smaller. To make matters worse, I had a pain flare limiting how far I can walk. Getting together with friends, which was limited before, has become more limited. Even going to the coffee shop to write my blog and get out of the house is no longer a possibility.
It’s hard not to focus on all the things we aren’t able to do. I could hear in my voice new negativity. It didn’t take long until darker thoughts came more quickly to me, so about a month ago my husband and decided we must get out every day of the weekend. We live in a northern clime; a long, cold, dark winter is ahead of us, so we must enjoy the good weather while we can. Instead of thinking negatively, we thought positively. My husband looked up wheelchair accessible hiking trails so I could go further than I normally would. We relished the beautiful fall foliage our state has to offer. These weekend outings became the highlights of my week, bringing positivity back into my life.
There will always be negative events in our lives. There will always be things we want that we don’t have. Happiness comes from the inside when we realize we were in control all along. It is not what happens to us that causes the suffering but our reaction to it.
“Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within us in our way of thinking.”