Happiness

SuperManda, over at See.Want.Take.Destroy.Repeat. just finished up a series on happiness. I really enjoyed reading it…especially the parts that I know that I need to work on. I could comment on each of her top 10 ways to reach happiness, but I’d just be messing up what she has already said so well. And it would sound like a middle school book report and we know I already did that last week. So, go on over to visit her and check it out for yourself.

Her thoughts on forgiveness (number 9) struck a chord with me  and I made a mental, a web-based and an actual handwritten, note to come back and write about it here. I love this quote in particular:

“Forgiveness has nothing to do with “being the bigger person.” Rather, forgiveness is all about freeing up space in your life for happiness. I’ve been told being resentful is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die.”

Isn’t that the greatest?

Forgiveness has come up in a lot of conversations and situations in the past few months. You all know that I am not the cheeriest, most mentally sound person in the universe, but I rarely hold a grudge. I have never made a conscious effort to avoid doing so, it’s just ingrained in me somehow. I could be so outrageously angry with someone and get over it, without resolution, in just a short matter of time. In terms of small things, it happens every day. I simply cannot stay mad at my husband. In larger situations, I am never that “all I want is an apology” type person. If I end a relationship with someone, it’s because I’m tired of their BS, never because I am holding some grudge.

I guess this is why I have such trouble understanding stubborn people and why they hold grudges. How do you go to bed at night and get the hell out of it every morning carrying around all of that negative energy? The negative energy of other people, no less.

If you are holding a grudge, please – let it go. Free up that space for happiness. Quit drinking that poison – it’s killing you slowly, while your nemesis just keeps on keeping on.