Tommy Collison

OK, some would say that if I do one more happiness post, ‘happiness’ would join the ranks of things I talk about too much. It’d be among the greats – pancakes, iPhones, drums and suchlike. However, I think this is really important, so I’ll run the risk afterwards. Plus, being known for ‘pancakes’ is one thing, ‘happiness’ is one I’m actually okay with!

For new readers, by previous happiness posts are here and here.

Right, so the first happiness post was about how it’s really up to you what mood you’re in, you can take events and things in different ways, while the second build on that and added perception.

This one is about The Little Things

Our life is full of events. Some are big, like weddings, while some are small, like buying a new bedside lamp. Of course, you have good events and bad events. Weddings are good, but eviction notices are bad. Buying a new bedside lamp is good, but burning yourself on the cooker is bad.

Oh, before I continue, I’d like to say that all my philosophies only apply to little bad things, not big bad things.

These events are really only as bad as you let them be. If you go through your day thinking about how you burnt your hand on a cooker, well obviously you’re letting that affect you, and you’re letting that get you down.

Happiness isn’t a physical thing or entity. It’s a state of mind. As Rudyard Kipling says:

If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;

Yes, they’re imposters because they exist only in the mind.

Good and bad things don’t exist. Things exist, and we paint them.

Hmm, the TV’s broken,

Negative person: damnit, we can’t watch [insert TV show in here]!

Positive person: oh well, now that I have 30 minutes to spare, may as well fix that shelf I’ve been meaning to get to! It’s an opertunity!

I think if more people realised that some things were only bad because they thought they were, we’d have a much happier society, and if we had a much happier society, we could get through this rec-[CENSORED]-ion!

So, Tommy’s tip for today, turn that frown upside down and we’ll laugh our way out of this current e-[CENSORED]-mic climate!

P.S: Our drama teacher tells us to make sure we pronounce the little words like ‘it’ and ‘he’d’ properly, and the big words like ‘Seymour’ and ‘antidisestablishmentarianism’ would mind themselves. It’s kind of like ‘look after the pennies and the pounds will look after themselves’. Could the same be applied here?