By Manisha Jain:
Monday mornings. Whoever made them? I am not a morning person. At all! I am usually very grumpy when it comes to mornings. Especially early mornings. But this particular morning, I found myself humming to this really energetic song which kept playing in my mind all throughout the day.
I am sure we all have experienced this. The way a particular song decides to get stuck in our minds and won’t stop playing and every time you open your mouth to sing, that’s what comes out. The irritating, and sometimes embarrassing part is, when some really sick song chooses to stick to you and won’t leave you alone. It sometimes leaves me wanting to bang my head on the wall. Kind of hoping the song will jump out of the head with all the banging.
Anyway, this song actually served as a catalyst in keeping my spirits high throughout the day and I just realized how much these little things help to make one feel good about the self. Even though I had no particular reason to be very happy with life, (it wasn’t doing much to please me), I woke up with a smile, had a spring in my step all day, felt the urge to dress up (I usually just pull up a pair of jeans and any shirt that comes in view) and greeted everyone with a smile. I usually avoid eye contact. I have always felt a little awkward around people. But on that day, I could actually feel happiness, and people around me also seemed happier. What is funny is that nothing big had actually happened to make me feel this way. I still had a lot of desperate wishes and pestering worries. It’s just that one thing kind of lead to the other and it made my day complete. And that’s when I realised, how happiness comes to you if you step out of your daily mundane life, look around a little, and try to enjoy and appreciate the subtleties of life.
This would probably sound as a stupid, normal, day-to-day happening to you and you probably are wondering why are you even bothering to read about some random girl’s extremely normal experience. But I actually learnt a valuable lesson from this. I learnt how we can find positivity in small things. I know life is never too kind, and there never goes a day when everything is perfect. But I just realised that the best way to live happily, and healthily, is to find pleasure in these subtle nuances of life. It can be anything from a happy song, your favourite person, an unexpected display of love from someone you treasure, a random text message, to a bite of your favourite chocolate.
These things happen to us everyday. But we are so caught up in life and moaning over the difficulties it brings upon us, that we manage to conveniently miss these little beautiful things. I strongly believe that if one just tries to appreciate these small things and revel in their beauty, it makes life, and dealing with those very difficulties, much easier. I feel we waste a good part of our very short lives worrying over really small issues, which don’t even mean anything to us after a few months. But then, those precious moments are lost. Forever.
I feel one should just do any little activity one feels inclined towards whenever he/she feels overburdened and feels life is not being very easy. A movie, a good meal, a chat with someone you can relate with, a cup of coffee, a walk, a good read, a game of your favourite sport… it surely helps us to take our mind off the disappointments of life, and when you open your eyes to what kind of pleasures life has to offer, the disappointments seem too trivial to worry over. And even if not, they at least equip you with the energy to deal with it, and ultimately get over it. We just need to look around. Everything around us is there because of a reason it has to serve in our lives. All we have to do is discover them.
Image courtesy: zagher