We just celebrated my two favorite fake holidays — National Coffee Day (Sept. 29) and International Coffee Day (Oct. 1). That’s OK if you missed it. You can celebrate it now.
To say that I love coffee would be an understatement. We just discovered my new seasonal favorite Pumpkin Pecan Pie coffee last year. They ran out of it in the store and online before I was ready to switch to Peppermint Mocha for the Christmas season — or as I like to call it, Christmas in a Cup. So, this year, we got our first supply before Labor Day, and I’ve been enjoying it every day since.
Drinking coffee makes me happy
I’m not a coffee snob. I don’t like all blends or flavors, but I like what I like. Drinking coffee reminds me of my Pa-Paw. He was a big coffee drinker, too. However, he was a pretty simple man drinking instant coffee with powdered creamer. I’m a little more advanced using K-cups or grounds in a traditional coffee maker.
Drinking coffee reminds me so much of him because when I was a little girl about 2-years-old, he would put me in my high chair next to him at the kitchen table and give me cookies to dunk in his coffee while he taught me scriptures. So many of my happiest memories involve coffee. That’s why I often say, “Coffee makes me happy.”
When my husband and I first started dating, I told him that Texas Pecan Coffee was my favorite. He surprised me one day with a bag of it and always kept it at his apartment to make for me. I told him that he was my favorite barista knowing exactly how I liked it made and that I was going to make him a sign. I did, and it now hangs next to our coffee bar in the kitchen.
Now, my husband and I have coffee dates every week at a coffeehouse in our neighborhood. I’m creating new happy coffee memories with him and adding to that mental scrapbook of happy times.
Do you truly know what if feels like to be blissfully happy? For most of my life, I would have to say that I didn’t. However, I am blissfully happy every single day now. Not everything in my life has manifested yet, but I’ve learned over the past few years that I have to focus on the positive things that I have in my life right now while getting really clear on what I want to see and waiting for them to manifest. Being married to my divine partner makes me feel blissfully happy. He treats me like I have value, reminds me daily how much he loves, values, appreciates and is grateful for me. He supports and encourages me in everything I do. He’s my best friend, and every day is a new adventure with him — even and especially when things don’t go as planned. I’ve had enough bad experiences in life to truly appreciate the value he adds to my life. He’s my blessing, and I tell him that all the time. I started practicing gratitude and being happy before we met, and I believe that has been the catalyst for me feeling so blissfully happy.
Songs and movies have been written about being happy, but most of them don’t really tell you how to manifest it. It is said that love and happiness go together like a horse and carriage, and being happy is one of the most loving things you can do for yourself.
Do you ever feel like you’re watching life pass you by? Like everyone around you is living in a different existence than you? I totally get it. I’ve been there. I understand exactly how you feel. I also know there’s a way to change those feelings to resonate on a higher, more hopeful level so that you can manifest the things you really want in life — including happiness.
Let me say that looking for happiness in another person, job, location, accolades or anything else is not the answer. That is looking outside yourself. Happiness is an inside job. It’s vitally important to go within to find happiness first. All those other things will just be the icing on top of the cream-filled cupcake you’ve already created for yourself, and what you create from within cannot be taken away from you by anyone or anything outside of you.
Does it make me happy to have my husband in my life? Yes. However, I will say it again — I learned how to be happy and grateful for everything that has happened in my life before I ever met him. So, I was prepared to receive this happy gift of having him in my life. I’m not sure that I would have been able to fully appreciate him had I not found happiness within me first.
In 2019 during my birthday month (October), I started working on a book about how to be happy. It was put on the backburner, though, when I started writing The Princess Guide to Gratitude andThe Princess Guide to Loving Yourself First. This topic has been heavily on my mind as I reflect on the wonderful events of the past year and prepare for my new year ahead. So, we’re talking about it today.
Defining happiness
Sometimes, we get so bogged down in our circumstances that we don’t even remember what it feels like to be happy nor can we define it. I’ve been in that place. So, let’s take a look at what happiness and joy mean.
Merriam-Webster defines happiness as “the state of being happy; an experience that makes you happy.” It defines happy as, “enjoying or characterized by well-being and contentment; glad, pleased.” Theopedia defines joy as, “a state of mind and an orientation of the heart. It is a settled state of contentment, confidence and hope.”
The events we endured in 2020 — or any dramatic, hurtful event — can make it hard to feel happy about our lives or what’s happening around us. However, we are in control of how we feel and what we think, and we can turn our frowns upside down. As I’m always telling clients, you are so powerful. You can change your world.
It’s imperative that we are diligent and consistent about what we allow ourselves to ponder. Like a friend once told me many years before I was crowned a national beauty queen, “Don’t let that info into your pretty head, queen!” We have to monitor what we allow ourselves to see and hear — that includes social media, TV, newscasts, podcasts, movies and music. It could also include sporting events. If it causes you to feel negative emotions of any kind, turn it off.
Now, don’t just take my word for it. Let me show you scientific proof of what I’m talking about and take you through an exercise to help you put what you’re about to learn into practice.
Senée Seale Luchsinger is a book author, mental health professional and life guide passionate about helping people transform their lives and relationships. If you’d like to book a personal session with Senée, she’s accepting new clients.
If you’d like a tool to help you transform your thinking and life quickly, download The Princess Guide to Gratitude Affirmations for free.
Do you have a question about life that you want Senée to answer? Leave it in a comment here, on one of her social media channels or email it to PrincessGuide@BecomingPublishing.com.
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