What is Happiness to you?

Hey guys...so today is another blog post day and I wanted to talk about something that we all (including myself) have a hard time with and that is happiness.  Happiness to me is one of the most important things in life.  If you are not happy, then you are miserable and what is a life if all you are is miserable? We all like our nice cars, our nice clothes, houses... all this material stuff, but once we die, we can't take all of that with us... it's all superficial stuff...so what are we left with? When you die...what are people going to say about you? What type of person were you? Now I'm not saying that having nice things is bad, because it's not..I mean we all love material things, but you can't take all that with you when you die and leave this earth.  What will matter is your happiness and how you spent your life living on this earth.  Happiness is a choice.  It's not a right, it's not a privilege, it's a choice and the choices that we make, define how our lives will end up.  If you are in a bad situation, you can choose to be happy about something in that day, or you can choose to let the bad situation ruin your entire day...but again...it's a choice.  This is easier said than done and I know that,  trust me...because there have been times in my life where I have cried myself to sleep because I have felt so miserable and depressed and I was very loss and I just could not find the happiness in my life but I got through it...which is a whole other story...which I will do eventually on this blog, but the point being..I had to make a choice to get myself the help, or just to get myself together and say "I have a reason to be happy."  Happiness to me is just letting myself go and feel happy without a care in the world of what others may think of me.  Running in the rain and not caring whether my clothes get ruined,  going to go see a movie I have been wanting to see by myself, if no one else whats to go, spending time with my child and seeing him happy and healthy, spending time doing something that is only for me and no one else.  Spending time hanging out with family and my husband...those and more of what make me happy and of course writing, journaling, reading and singing...But I choose to be happy even when things may not always seem that great and that's what we should do...choose to be happy even when life brings us curve balls and sadness.  Real happiness to me is all the little things that make us feel whole, beautiful, free and real to ourselves.  Happiness is having the freedom to be who you want to be even when others say you can't.  So then how do we become truly happy?  We have to ditch all of the negative people that have been bringing you down, and surround yourself with positive people and believe that things will work out in the end the way they should.  You have to focus on the positive things in life and move towards those positive things.  Set your mind to thinking about what positive thing has happened in the day, month, minute whatever, and focus your happiness on that.  NO ONE IS IN CHARGE OF YOUR HAPPINESS EXCEPT YOU.


CHOOSE TO BE HAPPY TODAY

SHARE THIS WITH ANYONE WHO MAY NEED TO KNOW THEY ARE ALLOWED TO LIVE A LIFE FULL OF HAPPINESS IF THEY CHOOSE TO.

Question to answer:

What does happiness mean to you?  Comment below with your answer

Find the Light in your Darkest Times

FIND THE LIGHT IN THE DARK

We all have those days, months, years, where things just don't go as planned.  Things seem to get messed up no matter how well you planned for it or how organized or precise you were about it.  Ever notice that how when you don't take the time to see the good out of a bad situation, how it just keeps getting worse?  Ever wonder how when you don't trust that something good will happen, you just seem to get angrier and lose faith in life?  Well that's why you need to find the light in your darkest times.  Now I'm a Christian and sometimes believing that things will be ok when you just don't see it near, can be very frustrating.  So many times, Christians blame God for the bad things that happen in their lives, but the truth is with God he didn't promise that everything would be perfect.  In the bible God talks about this...and writing this  post makes me think of this verse or verses that I often times go back to and it says: 

James 1:2-4(NIV) :"2 Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters,[a] whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. 4 Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything."

God is testing us with our trials, to see how well we do, and when we get through them, it just makes everything better and we can start to see why he does this.  Everyone has dark times, even the people in the bible had dark times, but God always has a way of showing people a ray of light in their dark periods.  So then maybe you don't believe in God, that's ok...I'm not here to tell you who or what to believe in, however I do feel that there are ways for people to see the light in their dark times.  Sometimes I tell myself that even though this bad thing happened, I am still grateful to have a wonderful family...I find something to be grateful for in that day...which really helps lifts my spirits.  And sometimes you may be the only one that can do that, especially if you are in a relationship or you have family or friends...you may be the only one who can be grateful for something in that day...and that's ok too.  Just remember that everyone goes through dark times, and there is always a ray of light that is showing through...you just need to find it.  

God bless

References:

  - Bible gateway

  -Google images

Take Time for Yourself

    So many times we go through life without even thinking about ourselves.  We are so caught up in the world around us and everything that we need to do for that day or week, that we forget that our bodies, our minds, our souls, ourselves, need that same attention sometimes if not more. Today I was able to finally experience that after having such a tiring, long, not knowing what will happen month.  So I'm going to share that with you today. Liam woke up at 7:30 AM in the morning like he normally does, and I thought he was going to stay awake, so as normal I walk downstairs, into his room, change his pants, give him his drink, give him a hug and get him ready to get out of his crib; however to my surprise he didn't want to get out, he wanted to lay back down, so I took this as a way where I could just relax for myself.  I put on his movie, which at the time was Madagascar and left the room.  I went back upstairs and decided to go back to sleep for a little bit.  Now I always have the baby monitors on...one in my living room that is extremely close to his room, and one in our room and they are both on and turned up, so I can hear everything.  At around 10:30 AM he was finally ready to get up, so I went back downstairs, got him up, gave him a shower, got him dressed and ready for the day.  Then I fed him breakfast, gave him his drink, and let him play.  By this time it's around 11:30 AM so I decided that it's my turn.  I go ahead and get myself ready and just relax.  Now this may seem a little bit annoying to some of you, but the point of this is, I took time for myself today.  I didn't rush anything.  I was able to take time just for once not be in a hurry about getting myself and my son ready for the day. My day in return was amazing.  I made myself some tea, ate breakfast and just spent some quality mother son time with my child.
   This being said:  taking time for yourself is so important.  There are so many benefits for taking time for yourself.  I decided to look up some things and according to this website: http://www.webmd.boots.com/women/guide/me-time; it says that when you take (me time) it can have psychological and physiological benefits.  So being that I was a psychology major for my bachelors and that I'm now doing my masters in healthcare, this basically means that by taking a break, and just relaxing or taking time out of your day to just do something you enjoy, you will in turn be a lot happier and healthier. Having (me time) is doing what you want to do that is only for yourself...for example...if you like to sketch or draw, then do that, if you love taking walks but you haven't been able to take one, then take one.  Whatever you love to do, make sure you make time to do it at least once a week.  Life is to be enjoyed, cherished and memorable...it's not all about work...and if you look at life like something that you could lose in any minute, then it will make it easier to look at (me time) like that too.  So here is some inspiration for your (me time):

 Google images

My photo

 Google images

My photo

It's not selfish to take care of yourself, love yourself, make yourself a priority and be happy.  It's ok to let everyone know that you are going to take a few minutes to just do something for yourself.  You are allowed to be happy, and part of being happy is taking care of your mind, body, soul, and spirit.   You can not truly be happy and healthy, if those four areas of yourself are not met. 

Question to answer:

What are ways that you take time for yourself? Comment below with your answer

Precious Moments = A Memory

Sometimes we just go through life without a single thought of what we were given.  We go to work and deal with work, we go home and do our normal house routines, and when we get a chance to relax, we don't really think much of it.  So many people have been telling me that I've only just started, that I need to wait until my 18 month old gets bigger because of all the things he will be doing and will be getting into, and maybe that is true...because again he's only 18 months old, he has a lot of learning and growing to do; but then I had something amazing happen yesterday, that just made me realize that all of that, can wait.

 Now you might say..."ok Marvina what is so amazing about your son taking a nap on your lap?"  Or you might say "my child used to always do that, why is this so special?" My son does not do this all that much, but yesterday he did, and it just made me realize how we sometimes don't appreciate the special moments in our lives, whether that is with our kids, our family, friends, or whatever.  So for today's blog, and the first blog post of this new blog, if you get nothing else out of this...get this, take time to appreciate the special moments, the precious moments, because you may not always get them, and they are not always guaranteed.

Question to answer:

What's your precious moment? Comment below with your answer