Finding Your Joy in the Season of COVID-19

It’s not hiding in the dark places, it’s in the wide open waiting for you to grab it.

There’s a secret that I’ve learned and I want to share it with you.

It’s something that I keep running into in various forms through my reading and conversations with people. It’s something, that when I began to understood its meaning, I began to practice. And that’s part of the key, it takes practice, lots of it.

Are you ready to learn this secret? Once I tell you, I can’t un-tell you and you will never be the same. Like Neo learning about the Matrix, your entire existence will change. You may find yourself completely questioning life.

Do you want to know this life altering secret?

Before I tell you, I want you to make a choice between being happy or not. You choose happy, right? Me too, but there is a catch.

In order for you to choose to be happy, you need to choose to let go of everything that is bringing you down. All you fear, all your worry, all your anger, let it all go and choose to be happy.

That’s the secret. Life is a choice. Every action you take daily is a choice. Every word you utter is a choice. Your silence is a choice. The way you drive to work is a choice. Getting drunk or worse every day because you are out of work because of a pandemic is a choice. EVERYTHING IS A CHOICE.

When you woke up this morning, what did you do? Did you get out of bed or hit snooze on your alarm? What did you eat for breakfast? Did you brush your teeth? Everything you did from the moment you woke up was a choice. Hopefully, you are continuing to read, that’s a choice.

Take a minute to think about it, how many decisions have you made today? Start writing them down, I’ll wait.

If everything you do is a choice, they you can logically assume that your happiness is a choice too.

I never said these decisions were easy. In fact they are difficult and most of our choices are so engrained in us that we don’t even realize we’re making choices. We call those unconscious choices habits or addictions.

I’m don’t want to get into the chemistry of it because that’s way too much for a short blog post. I’ll just say this, there are biological factors that cause you to make unhealthy decisions, be it physiological or psychological.

Regardless of your circumstances, something no one can take away from you is your power to choose to be happy and rise above the things that are happening to you.

In one of my favorite books, “Man’s Search for Meaning” by Viktor Frankl, he describes the atrocities of the Holocaust as he witnessed it from the inside. He speaks about finding meaning the harshest of situations. He comes to the conclusion that his captors could not take away anything he was not willing to give them. Namely, his ability to choose his happiness.

Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms — to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.” Viktor Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning

I you haven’t read Man’s Search for Meaning, pick yourself up a copy. I can promise, if my writing is making you think at all, Frankl’s will make you cry and make you a different person.

Are you convinced yet that everything you do is a choice? It’s a beautiful thing choice, isn’t it? It means you have the power to carve out your own destiny. Dr. Benjamin Hardy breaks it all down in his book “Personality isn’t Permanent” . I highly recommend you read it if you want to learn the nuances of making your way in the world today.

Your world changes when you understand you are not who you think you are, but rather who you want to be.

We are in the middle of the holiday season during a pandemic. It’s something the world hasn’t seen in 100 years. It is a difficult time for many folks. If we all pay attention to what the CDC and WHO are telling us, we won’t be spending time with extended family this year. Some of us may see families together or see news stories about people not staying in their bubbles. That may make you angry or upset.

Remember you can choose your response. Choose to be happy. You can choose to be kinder and gentler this season. Be more generous with your time and patience.

But most of all, enjoy the holidays the best you can.

If you order the books I mention in this post using the links above, I may earn a small commission from Amazon.

Originally published at http://lowtwopair.com on December 13, 2020.