Recently I've gotten much better at avoiding anxiety, stress, and worry. Surprisingly, though, I haven't had as much exciting emotional highs.
tm's comment remind's me that most recent research points to your state of mind affecting your happiness level, rather than your circumstances. The How of Happiness, which we read in our "Quest for Happiness" class last quarter, focuses on this point. Specifically, Lyubomirsky says only 10% of happiness is based on circumstances, while ~half is due to attitude and simple behaviors.
I do like this focus on state of mind, but I'm not completely sure where the line is between simple actions like "smile more" or "building personal relationships" and circumstances. I've been spending lots of time doing those simple positive acts (like talking more wiht friends, or taking my first fiddle lesson in 14 years). But how much of me doing this is dependent on me creating the circumstance to put aside time for these sorts of things?
I've been getting better at being patient, so I'm perfectly willing to test out this line. And to see whether my lack of emotional highs is a short-term effect, or a trade-off of getting rid of anxiety, or something else I need to change my attitude about. Hopefully the latter.
The positive psychology folks don't see patience as one of the 24 "Character Strength or Virtue" for some reason I have yet to understand, perhaps due to symantics and nuance, which I don't think are worth worrying about. I like practicing slowing down a bit more and not getting annoyed when things don't work out right away.
My experiment of starting my day with a creative activity is going well. for now it's just a couple sketches. Much better than staring at email in the morning. Suggestions of what to try out next week?
Patiently,
Emma
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