Practice Happiness! with Randy Sandknop

This Blog post is a reprint of an article on happiness and aging from the Our Health Co-op newsletter today. I thought it was great and worth sharing!

"This kat had a close friend make a rather disturbing remark recently. It came out of their mouth like this: “I’m 73 years old and I hurt everywhere. Why should I take a bunch of vitamins or choke down nutritional drinks? I’m just getting closer to dying each day anyway.”

I recently went grocery shopping at Walmart. It was unusually busy and by the time I tried to check out, there were a hundred others trying to do the same. There were only 2 check stands open.

Happiness is a practice and it can develop into a habit. Habitual happiness! After watching Patch Adams (again), it's clear that excessive habitual happiness can be edgy and can make others a tad uncomfortable.

My youngest son started college today! And though that may sound nice and normal, the path to this day has been long and fraught with peril.

Years ago, I had a cleaning and painting business. I worked for property managers and I had a small window of opportunity to get into each unit I was hired for and get it ready for the new tenant. It paid well for the hours allotted, but I found I wasn't fast. I cared too much what the end result looked like. I simply could not make myself do a crummy job and that's all I was given time for. I never missed a deadline but I was constantly stressed by the crunch feeling. I grew to hate it.

Hi All, this story is so nice and worth
sharing...

I apologize for putting this blog on the back burner while I have been moving. I bought a house and it's been a two month event! I'm very excited to share the details of how this all came about because it's been magical and every action step I took came effortlessly.

I have a dear friend who falls into a pool of despair when she imagines that everyone else is doing great and she's a failure --- comparing herself and her success to others and falling way short. I reminded her that everyone has negative qualities and bad days, nobody's perfect. But why dwell on it?

Each morning when I wake up, my first spoken words are Thank You, said with zest while still in bed. This sets a great tone for my thoughts as I prepare to get up and at it. Then when I do get up, I run to a mirror and greet myself with a bright Good Morning! What nice words to hear first thing each day!

As you may know, the very best ideas come in small chunks and then grow with time and attention. So it was with this website and the idea that happiness could be practiced.