Experience the Way Happiness Happens

Be happy when you’re happy,
or sad when you’re not.
Ignore the moment,
and it sits there to rot.

We spend a surprising amount of time checking things.

A little bump on your skin. A chip on your thumbnail. Your weight on the scale. The stock market. Your phone to see if anyone liked something you wrote.

Why do we keep checking?

Maybe we’re looking for a little bump of happiness.

The scale is down.
The stock is up.
Someone liked your writing.

Nice.

But sometimes the check gives you a bump in the other direction.

The scale is up.
The stock is down.
Nobody liked your post.

Not so nice.

Either way, you’ve had an experience.

And this is where Sketch Stretching comes in.

Instead of immediately trying to get rid of an unhappy bump, you can explore it. What is it connected to? What are you feeling?

You experience it rather than ignoring it.

Then you can let it go.

Put it back in the stream.

At first, this is mostly about the unhappy bumps. They’re the ones we don’t particularly want to carry around.

And something gradually changes.

The bumps of unhappiness don’t pile up as much.

You still get them. Life hasn’t been rigged to produce only good news.

But you’ve learned that an unhappy experience doesn’t have to stay.

And, of course, there’s another little issue.

The happy bumps can be sticky too.

That’s another lesson for another day.

For now:

Experience the bump.
Find the connection.
Feel the feeling.
Let it go.
Put it back in the stream.

Maybe that’s one way happiness happens.

Not by making every moment happy,
but by not carrying the unhappy moments around with you.

Experience the Way Happiness Happens

Be happy when you’re happy,
or sad when you’re not.
Ignore the moment,
and it sits there to rot.

We spend a surprising amount of time checking things.

A little bump on your skin. A chip on your thumbnail. Your weight on the scale. The stock market. Your phone to see if anyone liked something you wrote.

Why do we keep checking?

Maybe we’re looking for a little bump of happiness.

The scale is down.
The stock is up.
Someone liked your writing.

Nice.

But sometimes the check gives you a bump in the other direction.

The scale is up.
The stock is down.
Nobody liked your post.

Not so nice.

Either way, you’ve had an experience.

And this is where Sketch Stretching comes in.

Instead of immediately trying to get rid of an unhappy bump, you can explore it. What is it connected to? What are you feeling?

You experience it rather than ignoring it.

Then you can let it go.

Put it back in the stream.

At first, this is mostly about the unhappy bumps. They’re the ones we don’t particularly want to carry around.

And something gradually changes.

The bumps of unhappiness don’t pile up as much.

You still get them. Life hasn’t been rigged to produce only good news.

But you’ve learned that an unhappy experience doesn’t have to stay.

And, of course, there’s another little issue.

The happy bumps can be sticky too.

That’s another lesson for another day.

For now:

Experience the bump.
Find the connection.
Feel the feeling.
Let it go.
Put it back in the stream.

Maybe that’s one way happiness happens.

Not by making every moment happy,
but by not carrying the unhappy moments around with you.