What Makes You Happy?

I posted this status on Facebook today, "What is one thing you've done today to make yourself happy?" We all need those things to make it through the week, or hell, through life in general. Don't get me wrong, I still think life is good, great even. But sometimes the world can let us down a little bit. It's all circumstantial, really. Life is innately good, and we're left with the world to balance it out with complications. So we really need those little things throughout the day to make ourselves feel good about things.

And you might say, "But Ian, I had three tests today. How am I supposed to be happy with that workload?" Easy. Make time. Take your tests, and when you're done make yourself do something that will improve your mood. Simple as that. You have to do it, if you don't you'll get worn out before too long.

I really had to do this for myself the past couple of days. Don't get me wrong, things are great, they really are. My mood is on the up-and-up, my appetite is vastly improved (if only my diet would follow suit), and I've been far more social than I've ever seen myself be. But recently I just feel like maybe I'm not up to where I want to be yet. It's hard to explain, I just feel like I'm missing something. I know everything is a work in progress, but I'm the kind of person that can be frustrated when the status quo just continues for too long. It was running me down a little bit the past few days, not to the point of running ragged, but still not feeling the same heights of happiness I felt mere days before.

As I was reading through the comments that came up on that status I thought to myself, "Well, what have I done recently?" What could I do to get myself out of this "rut" I was feeling myself fall into? What makes Ian happy?

I'll tell you what I did. I read an entire book, No Country For Old Men, within one day, and while doing so I plumbed the depths of a mad killer's deterministic insanity, and wondered how everything in his philosophy made sense in the sickest of ways. After that? I pulled open my laptop and indulged myself in a few hours of Pokemon and Dishonored. Okay, you might scoff at me for playing Pokemon, I know. It's just for kids. Here's the thing. Pokemon was a big part of my childhood. My cousin and I would watch the show, play the games, trade the cards, everything like that. If you ask me, if I couldn't still hold on to that one, small part of my childhood I would be vastly disappointed in who I am today. Plus, I evolved my Rhyhorn to a Rhydon. Suck it, Pokemon League.

Old childish things aside, that's what I did. I took the weekend to make myself smile with those things. Is that such a bad thing? To take time to just be alone and make yourself smile with inane little things and just leave your problems behind? I don't think so. In fact, I wish more people would. If more people did that, I feel like we'd have a happier world to live in.

As I'm finishing this, I'm wondering how similar this is to my last post... Oh well, I guess I don't mind repeating myself as long as I do it with different words. But I'll leave this post with the same question I started with: What have you done lately to make yourself happy?

Until next time...