Happy 5th Anniversary to Let Life Happen

In Breast Cancer, Creating Happiness, Recent Posts by Barbara Jacoby

llh anniversary 5 featureToday marks the 5th anniversary of Let Life Happen.  We are 260 weekly blogs on the site mostly addressing breast cancer and domestic abuse but covering a rather wide range of subjects.  As I contemplated what I should write about on this auspicious occasion, I started to wonder what I wrote about in that very first blog.  I can’t tell you how shocked and surprised I was when I read it, knowing full well that when I started, I had no idea of a direction or what I wished to accomplish in writing a blog.  Never did I imagine that this would serve as the foundation of my life on social media.  Therefore, I decided there was only one thing to do and that was to reprint that very first blog.

Creating Happiness
Getting Started

Barbara Jacoby
January 20, 2008

Yes, you read that correctly.  We create happiness.  I know that you were probably taught the same thing that I was; that we “find” happiness.  Well, I don’t believe that we “find” anything.  I believe that we create circumstances and make choices in our lives that lead to our being happy.  I do know true happiness in my life and really want for others who may wish to manifest happiness in their lives to learn how to do so from my experiences.  This really is a journey and one that I feel so fortunate to have been able to make.  For all of the tough times, the rewards are so much greater to me than I could ever have imagined.

I had no idea of a direction or what I wished to accomplish in writing a blog.  Never did I imagine that this would serve as the foundation of my life on social media.

If I were to ask you what makes you happy, there is a very good chance that you would respond that you don’t know.  The reason for that is that many people have never experienced true happiness in anything in their lives.  Happiness seems to be so elusive because there is no manual that explains how to get it.  Happiness is a feeling.  You may have had fleeting glimpses of it but unless it is truly a part of your daily life, you are really missing out on this great gift.

I am sure that you have heard that money doesn’t buy happiness.  This is definitely true.  Happiness is not found in possessions or in excessive behavior of any kind or in the attention of an adoring partner.  It is not achieved by obtaining college degrees or winning awards or by becoming the president of a company.  Happiness comes from within and therefore, is something that any person can manifest and live on a daily basis, if you are willing to make that choice.  If you want happiness in your life and would like some help in creating it for yourself, I would suggest that you read on.  If you don’t believe what you have read thus far, then you would be wasting your time to continue.

For those of you who are still with me, I must say that I believe that you have to have a fundamental belief in God, in a higher power, in a universal force, in unconditional love, whatever you wish to call it, if you are to be happy.  The reason is that if you do, you will believe in the fundamental good in others as we all come from that same source.  Therefore, we are all equal and we are all able to create happiness just as we are all able to create anything else in life that we wish.

Let’s start with something relatively simple.  Do something nice for yourself.  Sometime today you most surely said something nice to someone else, you gave someone a hug, you did someone a favor, etc.  If you did, give yourself a moment to focus on that deed and congratulate yourself for being a good person. Be happy about it.  Be grateful that you had the opportunity to do so. If you haven’t, the day is not over.  You still have time.  You have the opportunity to do or say something that makes a positive difference in someone else’s life.  When you do something nice for someone, you make them happy for that moment and that makes a happy moment for your.  Oh, yes, it is just that easy.  It doesn’t make one bit of difference about what you were wearing at the time or if you were having a bad hair day or if you had lots of money in your pocket.  You gave of yourself and that is what it is all about.

Now how do you think that you would feel if you did something else for someone today?  Maybe someone needs you to lend an ear.  You don’t have to have the answers to another person’s problems – as a matter of fact, you can’t have the answers for someone else as you aren’t able to know their experiences or the lessons that another person else needs to learn.  Or if you care about someone else, say some prayers for them and while you are at it, say a few for yourself. It makes all the difference in the world.  For I have found that the more that I do to help others in their lives, the happier it makes me. And at the end of the day, I recognize the fact that as I have made a choice to create happy moments in other lives, I have created for myself a foundation upon which I can continue to build a happy life for myself, one day at a time.

Oh, and thank you so much for reading what I have just written.  I hope that it has been of some help to you.  It has been of great help to me because I was able to focus on something other than the fact that the cancer is back and knowing that I am using my experiences to help others to create happiness makes me happy!

I only have one correction to make to that original blog today.  The cancer is NOT
back.  There is nothing more to say but that I am looking forward to the next 5 years and all of the wonderful things to come.