We don’t have to work any harder, to be happy

We either make ourselves miserable or we make ourselves happy. The amount of work is the same.

Carlos castaneda (via pam grout’s The course in miracles experiment)

I don’t need to gear up to act on getting happier. It doesn’t take more effort to be hopeful than to be despairing. I can see where it does take more effort to turn myself around from when I’m already peevish, petulant, and pessimistic, though. That is like doing double-duty. Retracing my steps back to the fork in the road and then taking the other path. I don’t have the energy for all that extra work…

But every day I get to choose my path in the first place.

And, actually, in every moment.

Just like this one.

What if we don’t have to go back to where we forked in order to choose again, but rather we can reach toward better feeling right where we are?

The amount of work is the same.

The amount of work is the same.

The amount of work is the same.

Oh, I can do this. The only one who overworks me is myself.

Where have you been asking yourself to work oertime? What’s a happier choice you might make at the start of your day tomorrow? How about in this moment?

gina drellack is the author of This Time, Glide: Stop Struggling for Success and Start Achieving through Ease and Joy, available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Balboa Press. She is also a contributing author to Animals: Personal Tales of Encounters with Spirit Animals, available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Sacred Stories.