Make some room for Happiness

Once upon a time there was a complex structured mansion called mind. In that mansion there used to be two frequent visitors, Happiness and Sadness. They used to come and go in this mansion. The owner of the mansion did not really think much about their visits. Then one day that big event happened. After that event, Happiness visited the Mind and stayed there for few days. Though, it did not stay there for very long. After some period of time, another big event happened. Then, the Sadness visited the Mind. It stayed there for very very long! It came with a heavy baggage. This made the Mind very heavy and it was very difficult for the owner to move ahead in life. The owner started having difficulty with his work, family life, other relations and with his health. Fortunately he asked for help and nice people like family members, doctors and counselors helped him to drive the Sadness out of the Mind. During this process, the owner realized that he missed a lot! Many things were happening around but he missed most of it. He spent a lot of money, he was behind in achieving his life goals and also had some broken relationships after this. He though, enough is enough! I need to talk to Mind, Happiness and Sadness. When he started talking, he asked the sadness first, "I never liked you. Why did you stay for so long?" Sadness said, "I always stay in the place with a lot of mess. Your Mind was never really clean. I liked it there. So I stayed. " "That's impossible!" said the owner. " And you happiness? I always loved you. Why didn't you stay for long? " Happiness replied, " You did not really make enough room for me in your Mind. Your mansion did not have the amenities I need. So I left." The owner asked the Mind, "Why didn't you do anything? Why didn't you send the Sadness out? " Mind looked surprised. It said, " I am just a mansion. I do not do anything on my own. I just help you perceive events and emotions. You are the one who has the tools. You are the one who keeps me clean, just like your other Mansion named Body. You did not really take my care. You always had help available outside but you did not care. Sure the two big events were really out of your control but if you had had kept the Mansion clean on daily basis, there was a possibility that Sadness would have left early even after the big event. I am a live Mansion. If you ask me what amenities I need, I will definitely reply. But you never asked me anything before today. " The owner was surprised to hear all this.

 

In the light of the story above, I started thinking about myself. Is it me who is not making enough room for Happiness? How is that possible? Then I started looking at just one normal day of my life. Not at the big picture or big event. Just a normal day. I looked at it from two entirely different perspectives. Then I found the results as below-

 

Take 1: Glass Half Empty-

It was a regular day. I dropped my kids to school as usual and was driving to work. I was thinking in my mind, " I hope I can reach to work on time." There was an accident on the road and it caused a big traffic jam. People act crazy during these office time traffic jams. They do not let you go ahead, they will try to go in the wrong lanes and so on. The same drama was happening right now as well. I was upset and was thinking that these people are morons. This is a big mess and grr... I am going to be late to work. Fortunately the road became clear soon but I was 5 min. late for my work. By the afternoon I started feeling headache, cold and completely unwell. I was feeling completely awful to drive to my kids' school instead of going to bed. I some how managed and then went to bed straight. I got fever. My kids did their home work but my elder daughter's handwriting was shabby as I was not able to pay attention to her homework today. My husband fixed us a dinner and made a big mess in the kitchen. Due to the sickness, I had to take a day off next day. I had a meeting that day and had a deadline to complete it. I was scared but one of the team members was ready to lead the meeting in my behalf. "Now I need to explain everything to her! Such a pain!" I was thinking. I was tired but had to write this big email for this meeting. Finally the terrible day ended!

 

Take 2: Glass Half Full-

It was a beautiful morning and I dropped my little munchkins to school. After a big hug to them I started for my work. It was a traffic jam but fortunately, I was in my wonderful car enjoying the songs on radio. Even though the traffic was crazy, thanks to almighty, I survived without any accident and was only 5 min. late to work. I am so lucky to have wonderful people at work. No body complained for my late entry. By afternoon I felt sick but I am a hard worker. I was still able to bring my kids home without any trouble. Good health routine always pays off. Even during bad health days. Good job by me! My smart kids were able to finish their home work and chores all by themselves. I think, I will only need to remind my elder one to look after her handwriting next time.  My husband is so caring! He fixed us dinner. I am sure he will clean up the mess in the kitchen if I remind him. Tomorrow is that meeting and my kind co-worker is ready to help me with it. All I need to do is, just write one email. Finally, I can sleep peacefully. I am so grateful to the universe! Even after the troubles, I have so many helping hands!

 

Hmm... Looks like it is kind of in our hands to make the room for happiness. No matter how hard you try, there will be those big events in life causing pain and sorrow but if we have the habit of keeping our Mansion clean, using our "tools" to create amenities for happiness and often asking the mind what it wants, it can create a buffer for such bad times and chances of bouncing back to normal after these events quickly can increase. Let's make a habit of cleaning our mansions often and making room for happiness always!