Another Journal Entry - Happiness!

I just re-read this that I had written from September 2005. As I read it it reminded me that I need to do that again, to take joy in the little things that happen all the way throughout the day, and record them, because it is so easy to not even recognise how awesome your life is! Here it is:

“And it came to pass that we lived after the manner of happiness.”
(2 Nephi 5:27)

I thought about that scripture when I woke up yesterday, and made it my goal to ‘live after the manner of happiness’ that day. So as I lay in bed coming around to consciousness (which sometimes takes me a while!) I decided to count the number of times I felt happy that new day - after 200 times I stopped counting, but kept feeling happy. I had counted things like:

Singing in the shower, hugging a stranger in the supermarket, pointing the shower head the wrong way and spraying myself in the face (which I have done umpteen times before!), skipping and running through the park with the kiddies, jumping up and down on the bed and then falling off because I was laughing so hard (which also kept me laughing for hours after!), remembering ‘June memories’, driving with the windows in the car down and singing at the top of our voices and seeing other drivers laugh at us, seeing the sun shining on a beautiful flower, smelling freshly cut grass, flopping on my bed with fresh crisp sheets on, reading my Book of Mormon, having a gospel conversation, doing research for something I’m writing, getting an email from a friend, feeling needed, receiving a thank you from a stranger, remembering my testimony, making a present for someone, basking in the sun, looking at a picture a young woman painted of me, reading a card another young woman had sent me, wearing a yellow t-shirt that reminds me of my mum, finding a pair of trousers which I thought I had lost as they were too small – only to discover they now fit:), wearing some fluffy socks, feeling peace, looking at a bag I had made on Saturday night (it's sooo lush!)and laughing at fighting with me friend over bits of material for it, reminiscent of my mum:), counting the flowers in my bedroom, doing a handstand (which is something that you all would’ve found very funny if you had seen it too!), saying my prayers, praying sincerely for a couple of people and feeling how much Heavenly Father loves them, pretending to conduct an orchestral piece for my sister & dad, finding accommodation near to the temple in Denmark for me to stay in, cleaning my sisters room, doing a boy push-up, seeing if I could walk from the lounge to end of the garden with my eyes closed, playing songs on the piano, meeting a baby's gaze, oh oh oh, and I went in a shop yesterday and there was some music playing in the background, and there was a baby boy, about 18 months old, whose head was bobbing in time to the music, with the kind of rhythm I could only dream of having:).

Well, those are just the ones which came to mind first off – so you can see how I got to 200 so quickly. I suspect that is normal, but I certainly didn’t recognize how many happy moments I had each day until I counted them.

I read this somewhere yesterday:
“First, we must visualize our objective. What is our purpose? The Prophet Joseph Smith counseled: “Happiness is the object and design of our existence; and will be the end thereof, if we pursue the path that leads to it; and this path is virtue, uprightness, faithfulness, holiness, and keeping all the commandments of God”
(Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, pages 255–56).

I hope that happiness will be yours today also:)