#AtoZChallenge- Habituated Happiness

There comes a phase in everybody’s life when nothing seems to go right. Leela was exactly going through the same. She got out of a messy break up and was not in her happy place lately. She could neither eat nor sleep nor concentrate on her job. She felt restless, hopeless and dejected. No matter how many people tried to brighten up her spirits, nothing really changed. After months of persuasion, her friends gave up on her, as she wasn’t making an attempt to get any better.

Leela felt helpless, no matter how hard she tried. She was depressed, agitated and found it hard to even wake up on a daily basis. She knew her problems were not the end of the world, but her depressed mind was not ready to accept any of the facts. As if her heartache wasn’t enough, she even lost the project she was working on. Her company had a strict policy of clearing technical certifications in order to get into a new project. Given her state of mind, she knew it was highly unlikely for her to pass those certs. This made her situation even worse. Neither was she able to get out of her grief, nor was she able to try her best to save her job.

While Leela was still drowning in sorrowfulness, her older cousin Maya was in town to visit her. Maya felt disheartened to witness her fun, chirpy cousin in such a depressed state. “I know how much pain you are currently undergoing, but how long will you be like this?”, asked Maya concerned about her little sister. “I don’t know, not that I’m not trying”, Leela wept. “Listen, have you heard about Law of Attraction?”, Maya asked as she consoled her. “No”, Leela paused. “It is a universal law, which goes by – like attracts like. So the more you are sad, the more sadness you are attracting to your life!”, Maya stated. Though Leela wasn’t in a mood for any inducement, she felt Maya might be right. As the series of events in her life post breakup seemed to justify Maya’s statement.

Maya tried to motivate her to believe how a positive outlook would bring a drastic change to her life. She pointed out instances of her own to make Leela understand that life is in her very hands. She mentioned the need for Leela to make an effort to be cheerful to attract happiness back into her life. “Indulge yourself into anything that makes you happy. Any little thing!” Maya said. “Remember, pain is inevitable, but suffering is optional!”, Maya quoted. Leela was slightly moved by Maya’s words. Though it was extremely impossible for her to feel cheerful in her current state, she realized she could start small.

Maya inspired Leela by taking her to Leela’s favorite restaurant and ordered her favorite dish. Leela enjoyed the food she ate after a long time! “Did you notice? You enjoyed the food! So, every little thing, as small as eating your favorite food counts. Things won’t change overnight, but will definitely get better with time!”, Maya assured. Though Maya left within few days, her words of wisdom had huge impact on Leela. No matter where she was or what she did, Maya’s words always popped up inside her head, which is a good sign she thought. Leela started doing little things she loved, like watching her favorite sitcoms, visiting the public library, shopping for accessories and cooking her favorite food.

Whenever she felt low or dejected, she tried to involve herself in doing her favorite things. Slowly, Leela realized she was feeling better and not as depressed. She enjoyed reading but made sure to avoid reading anything that involved heartaches or grief, as she did not want to remind herself of the pain. She watched more comedy sitcoms, surrounded herself with new people who don’t question or remind her of her past and also traveled with family in spite of not being interested. Thus she shifted her focus to refraining  herself from feeling the pain instead of constantly reminding herself about the bad incidents of her life.

Within few months Leela noticed a change in herself. Though she wasn’t as cheerful as she was once upon a time, she was not depressed either. She started hanging out with her old friends without any guilt. She watched sad movies or read books on love failures, but wasn’t impacted as much. Leela also became interested in clearing the certifications at work. Time heals everything.

In this process of regaining herself, Leela got so addicted to making herself feel good, that it became a habit. No matter how much things went awry on a day to day basis, she got habituated to shifting her focus on making herself happy. A bad day ended with a good meal at her favorite restaurant or occurrences of unexpected incidents came along with shopping splurge or fun movie nights. Leela became an addict to happiness! She just couldn’t stay gloomy for long anymore. She craved for making herself feel good almost always! This habituated happiness of hers brought along all the goodness into her life. Not only did she clear her certs and got into a project, but she got promoted as well. “The law of attraction is so real and suffering will never be my option”, she reminded herself of Maya’s words.

Law of Attraction Takeaway– The universal law is simple. You attract how you feel. If you feel sad, you will attract more grief. If you are happy, you will attract more happiness. Though it is impossible to always feel happy, our ability to make ourselves feel good and cheerful is important during hard times.

Pain is inevitable, but suffering is optional! When there is an option, why chose to suffer?