negative thoughts please skip if affected by...

[kacie tri-ing]

Hugs here too! Sometimes it does feel like we are in a big room! I love your posts too!

[arielmoon]

((((tribogata))))

I'm sorry you're sad.

It's okay to not be in a relationship. A good coupled relationship is a gift, but it is not necessary to have one to live a happy and rewarding life.

~snip~

Finding small happinesses in your daily life is a skill that you can learn and cultivate. This can help you grow your happiness, from little things (paying a toll for the car behind you, one of my favorite cheap thrills, for example, or smelling a richly-perfumed flower) into a collection of little things, into bigger things, into a happier life.

Or as someone else put it: happiness is a habit. Just as you trained for tri, you can train for happiness. You know how to train (that is something for which to be grateful right there!), and can tap into that wealth of knowledge to train yourself to find the small happinesses in your everyday life.

Great advice!

I am a big fan of Louise Hay and per her advice I do positive affirmations before I get out of bed. I think of all the wonderful things that I have in my life that I might otherwise take for granted and I realize that what I have is much more important than what I dont have.

[ginny]

Hi - I am sorry for your current sadness. I have been there too. Fairly recently (well, it seems recent, but it was over 2 years ago now), when I went through a very tough time, I reinstated something my mother taught me when my father died. I will tell you what it is, and it is sort of my "magic bullet" but first, let me tell you how depressed I was. I would 'leak' tears all the way into work (and I lived 37 miles from town so the drive was pretty long). I would randomly burst into inconsolable crying and have to go hide in my car or in the cold room (I'm a scientist) or wherever until I could get myself under control. I thought at times that I would never be happy again.

My mom told me long ago what has pulled her out of depression in the past (it's pretty similar to the gratitude journal), but whenever you look at the the sky and see the blue of an amazing day or even the clouds of an overcast day... to smile. Force yourself to smile. At the same time, I thought about what I had to be grateful for. Now, when I am sad or depressed, I automatically look up. I notice the sky. I take a deep breath, and I thank the universe for the things that are good in my life. And, most importantly, I smile. Smiling felt more like grimacing for a while, but when we smile, we trigger muscles and neurons and our brains 'remember' happiness. By smiling, we begin to actually feel happier.

I know it's cheesy, but it works for me. Maybe it will work for you too.