Life doesn’t have to be as complicated as we make it sometimes. I’m learning that it all comes down to following what makes you happy.
I know that sounds simple, but if you think about it, it’s really not. It’s important to follow what makes you happy and lights you up, but sometimes it can be really difficult to figure out exactly what that is. Here are some things that make me happy:
I’ve been doing really fun and bright eye makeup looks lately, and people have been commenting more and more on how much they like them and think they could never do that. This has inspired me to want to start doing tutorials on my eye looks to show that anyone can do it because I used to feel hopeless in the makeup world as well.
I’ve been really intentional about what clothing I’m wearing each day, and I often get compliments from others on how they really like my style. Being intentional about my clothing choices has made me happier because I feel like I’m really, finally expressing who I am, and other people are noticing. Even if other people didn’t ever notice or say anything to me, wearing fun clothes still makes me really happy.
I’ve always been interested in tarot and oracle cards. I have eight decks now that I’ve acquired over the last few years, and ever since I got them, I’ve had an inkling that I want to start doing readings for others. I (my ego) always told myself that there are so many card readers out there already who are way more talented and have more experience than me, so I just never did any. When my friend Shelby visited me a few months ago, we did some informal in-person readings for each other, and she helped me trust my intuition and realize that I do want to do this more. I continued to do readings for myself every once in a while, and then last week the inkling to read for others came up again.
I took a risk and decided to post a picture of Rebecca Campbell’s Work Your Light oracle deck on my Instagram stories and say that if anyone was interested in a reading to let me know. I didn’t know if anyone would care or respond, but I ended up doing readings for four people and all of them said it resonated with them and that they appreciated it. This helped me learn to trust my intuition more and get out of my own head.
I also really love writing and blogging. Even if no one ever saw anything I was writing here, I would still be insanely proud of everything I’ve been sharing. I’m proud of how honest and vulnerable I’ve been and how I’ve worked through and talked about some of the tough times I’ve gone through.
Writing brings me so much joy that I can hardly contain myself. I don’t feel like I’m being myself if I’m not writing something at least once a day, whether it’s a blog post, Instagram caption or something in my journal. Writing makes me so happy, and being able to share my story and thoughts with anyone makes me feel really fulfilled. I’ve gotten more out of this blog than I ever thought I would, and I’m so excited to see where my writing takes me from here.
I’m realizing that I’ve been making my life more complicated than it needs to be. I’ve been so focused on finding a new job that ticks all my boxes and is the absolute perfect fit for me, but I’m not sure what a perfect fit is for me anymore. I’m not sure what job would make me super happy right now, and that’s okay.
I’m learning that in my personal life, I can keep doing things that make me happy and fill my cup and bring me pleasure and not just rely on a job doing all of those things for me.
Whether you love what you’re doing right now or not, we can all find ways to incorporate more joy and pleasure in our lives.
What makes you happy? What fills your cup? What do you enjoy doing even if no one would pay you or maybe even notice that you were doing it?
For me, that’s playing with makeup, wearing fun clothing, doing readings and writing. I’m not saying I’m going to make a career out of those things (but hey, who knows, right?), but I’m saying that doing all of those makes me happy, so I’m going to keep doing them more.
I’m learning that I still attach a big part of my worth to my career (or current lack of one). I kept unconsciously thinking that I would find a job I absolutely loved, and that would make me so incredibly happy and my life would change. But that’s just not the case.
It can be sad to think about it like that, in a way, but it can also be really freeing. I don’t want to attach my happiness to whatever my job is or will be anymore. I want to focus on doing things that make me happy as often as possible so I don’t focus on the unforeseeable future where everything is suddenly hunky dory and perfect because guess what? That doesn’t really exist, at least for most people.
I think we all have a similar line of thinking at times, that life would be easier and better if we had the perfect job. While that might be true for some, I think it takes many of us more time we’d like to be in a place where we actually have that.
Until that’s the case, it’s important to learn how to be happy and mindful in our present lives. We can’t keep delaying our happiness until we hit certain societal milestones because what if you never hit certain ones? Will you be unhappy forever? No one wants that, I’m sure, and I sure as heck don’t want that for you.
Follow what makes you happy. If you love going to see new movies, start a YouTube channel where you review them. If you love interviewing people, start a blog where you talk to people in your community about their stories. If you love animals, volunteer at the zoo. The list goes on.
Find something that makes you happy, and do it as often as you can. That’ll help you live in the present moment more as opposed to waiting for some big milestone to occur before you think you can finally be happy.
Photo by Elijah Hail on Unsplash
