The Best Way to Tick People Off

Sometimes I can’t help myself. The urge just overwhelms me and I can’t resist coming out and doing it.

When I first started doing this, I had no idea it would tick people off. No idea that I was causing others to cringe and think terrible thoughts my way. Sometime after my teen-age years when I’d figured out a thing or two and changed a lot of my perspectives, I just wanted to. And I didn’t think I was hurting anyone.

Now I’ve decided that I just don’t give a hoot. I’m going to go right on doing it, and this is why.

People should be allowed to share their happiness. We should be encouraged to feel great, and to express how happy we are with our lives. Whenever I hear or see that someone has exclaimed to the world “I LOVE MY LIFE!” it makes me happy. It fills my soul that another person is moving along in their journey on a positive path. That they’re happy with what life has given them and where they are.

Sadly, not everyone feels this way.

I have been cautioned several times by different people that have heard or read me broadcast how full my heart is over the life I have found and made for myself. “I feel the same a lot of the time, but not everyone wants to hear it.” Really? Oh.

So I simmered down for a bit. I kept my happiness to myself. I whispered it to myself and my munchkin. Then I realized something.

“Funk” it.

The pusher-downers of happiness, who would rather not see that someone other than them is embracing their journey can shove it. Instead of seeing others excitement over life as a reminder of the things that aren’t “right” in their own journey, they should learn to rejoice in other people’s happiness. To take a lesson from what makes others feel so wonderful, and to seek out for themselves what it is about their life that they, too, can feel positive about.

So your Facebook pal is celebrating that Spring is close at hand where they live, or that they’re on their way down to sunny beaches and warm waters. Instead of cursing them silently for “gloating” over their life, be happy for them. Then go and find what it is that you can relish about your own experience. Maybe you get to experience building snowmen and making snow angels and forts, tobogganing down glittery hills of snow with your children – something that little ones in warmer climates will rarely (if ever) get to do with their own.

Instead of bringing yourself down with feelings of jealousy or resentment, let yourself feel joy over another’s rejoicing. Let their happiness fill your soul, too, and be a reminder to find the good things in your own life.

I love to see other people happy. I would much rather check my Facebook or Instagram feeds and see that my family, friends and enemies (although I don’t consider myself having any enemies) sharing their happiness, than expressing their negativity.

What makes you happy? What fills your soul with warmth and joy that this life is yours for the taking?