I hope everyone had a great time doing last week’s challenge, falling into the present. For me, my guy surprised me with a trip to the Renaissance Festival. It was the perfect time to stay present and live in the moment.
The things that brought me joy about this experience were first getting to spend this time with my guy, being outdoors and watching the artisans as they made their crafts. I bought this beautiful stone mug to enjoy my tea in, I was super excited to get home and use it.
Did everything go perfect? Absolutely not.
Several things went completely wrong. About an hour before the Joust was to start, I went to get us seats. We hadn’t eaten so my guy went to go get us turkey legs that we could enjoy during the show. I found the perfect seat where I could get great pictures. About twenty minutes later, he returned with no turkey legs. They sold out after he had waited in the line. He thought he would surprise me and get me an apple dumpling instead, but before that happened, they sold out of those as well.
And my perfect seat? Not perfect after all. Unbeknownst to me, my seat was an obvious gateway for others to get their seats. I had to get up about four times to let about 10 people through. Three of those people (did I mention it was extremely muddy from raining several days before?) stepped directly on my seat where I was sitting with their muddy shoes.
As the show started, here came a family of five and my perfect seat became the worst seat in the arena in a matter of seconds. This family chose to stand in my viewing area. For the remainder of the show, all I saw was the backside of a guy I refer to as Mr. Gray Jeans.
It didn’t even stop there, on our way out we went to the wrong parking lot (who would have thought they had two on opposite ends of the festival?) We spent almost an hour looking for our truck before realizing we were not in the right area.
Hungry and unable to find our vehicle we still laughed and joked about the day.
We could have easily only focused on those bad things and our day would have been ruined. However, that’s not how we roll. Those things are only things. Bad things happen all the time. We are the ones that get to choose how we process them. I know people that would have been furious about the events that happened to us. They would have spent the entire day miserable because of it. However, none of us have to.
The thing is people live in their own worlds. I’m certain no one stepped on my seat on purpose knowing they had mud on their shoes, and I had to sit in that mud. Hopefully, the family of five was so excited to see the Joust and never once considered that they were blocking my view. At some point in our lives, we all do this. We focus so much on what it is we are doing we don’t consider others around us. It’s at these moments where we aren’t being mindful.
Our focus was to have a day of happiness and fun. Nothing was going to change for us. Besides how can you stay upset when you walk by a sign that says Giggleswicks?
Your mindfulness challenge for this week is to fall into happiness.
Pick one thing that you can do in the next week from this week fall challenges (or if you have another one from last week feel free to use it instead). You can print your worksheet and Fall ideas here.
Try to pick something that will cause you to be around others.
Before you even start, make the conscious decision that no matter occurs you choose happiness.
As you go about your day, notice those around you. What do you see about others that make you happy?
Is there anything that you are doing that would cause them to have a bad day?
If something occurs that isn’t as you planned or would normally upset you, take a deep breath.
When we pause for a moment, we give ourselves a chance to decide how we will react.
If it is something that you can’t let go of and have to say something, then do so with happiness and not anger. Kindly ask the person (with a smile on your face) if they realize what they are doing is causing you a problem. Chances are they aren’t even aware their actions are problematic for you.
When we seek first to understand others it helps us to not to assume the wrong thing.
What did you notice about this day that brought you happiness? Did you live in the moment and experience each thing as it happened?
Being happy is a choice. A choice we make every day in each moment. Bad things will always happen, that’s life. However, you get to choose how long it affects you. I hope you choose to be happy.
If you have not already signed up for our weekly mindfulness challenge but would like to, please do so here. I would love you to be a part of this mindful tribe!
Other articles you might have missed this week:
Need to Unwind? Try a Teacup Meditation
Practice Self-Care, Throw Yourself a Pamper Party
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