Happier, more peaceful, is something most of us aspire to be. The science of positive psychology is pragmatic, it says there are things we can do to make ourselves more joyful, more contented with our lot in life, which, in my life, is traffic and bake-sales.
ย What can we do to be happier? We can get grateful, say the positive psychologists, about what we do have, and keep a journal, a gratefulness journal, to remind us of what's going well.ย I enjoy this.ย For instance, last Thursdayโs entry: OMG!!!! Not a complete maternal failure!!! Remembered bake sale!!!!
ย Despite the success of the gratefulness journal, Iโm a hard sell with positive psychology because I am a such worrier. I could take it pro.ย I know it takes just as much effort to worry as it does to imagine a pleasant outcome to any project,ย procedure, or school play, but I spin broody, hand-wringy, even over cupcakes. Vanilla buttercream? My stomach is in knots.
Find out what's happening in Owings Mills-Reisterstownfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
ย I glisten and glow, bead, and drench; especially now that I am a mother: I sweat the small stuff.ย Except itโs not small stuff. Once you're a mother there is no more small stuff, it's Big Important Things like will my son learn to read, ever? Will my daughter learn to use her big girl voice, not this nails-on-chalkboard whine? Is that sneeze allergies? Or some difficult to diagnose tropical disease that eventually eats your face off? Iโm ever vigilant.
ย Thoughts like these the positive psychologists despair of. Yet I have them. My son who is 6, and in to slings and arrows and things, asked: Are you a warrior, Mom? Worrier, warrior. Same thing.ย The goal and the hope is peace, so I told my son, yes.
