Living In the Moment

And Keeping Your Happy Place

I was recently asked what it is I do to stay positive? What is it I do to remain happy, especially over the past year and a half of pandemic stress and constraints? I thought about this putting personal and professional activities aside. What exactly is it that might allow one to remain happy and content amid a global pandemic? Or even when we’re not in a pandemic?

As a child I was scared of my own shadow. It’s very possible I experienced some kind of trauma that embedded itself in my body and erased itself from my consciousness. The why does not matter, what does is that this fear conditioned me into a pattern of constant worry.

As an adult I was able to get the help I needed to address this and after years of practice in various disciplines, teachings and therapies I changed. Not just my behaviours but me. I became more of me and not what I reflected or thought I needed to be to survive in my living environment.

So, I can say that my very first step in learning how to be happy was letting go of fear.

Imagine me then trying to be a mindful young teen and young adult navigating the seventies on my reservation. If you’re thinking Dances With Wolves forget it. Think more of the Seventies Show characters but instead of a a middle class white neighbourhood imagine a neighbourhood of oppressed, marginalized, hard-working and hard-living people.

People whose children were removed by Canadian law and who many times had no idea where they were taken and who would be sent to prison if they tried to get them back. If we didn’t end up in a residential school or had a store-bought apple in our day school lunch we were considered the lucky ones. That’s me.

We as human beings cannot compare the hardships we have suffered. What we can share and maybe even compare is how we handle them, how we survive them, and how we move beyond the chains of trauma to become the best we can be. There is no rule that says we must always be “Singing In the Rain” happy.

Related posts:

Getting back behind a kit after my ridiculously brutal meltdown has been a good idea….a very good idea. At the moment I’m currently stepping in to drum for a friends band whilst their full time…

Taxes can be a confusing subject especially if you are a US expat. Unlike all the other countries (with exception of Eritrea), the United States taxes its citizens on their worldwide income…

Key pillars of creating digital experiences that will help you drive tangible business results. Strategic tweaks that you usually don’t find in regular textbooks.