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A Way to Find Happiness in Every Breath

When my whole life turned around

By Jocleyn SorianoPublished 2 years ago 4 min read
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Image by Free Photos from Pixabay

Deep within me, I knew I always had this desire to live a spectacular life. I may not have admitted it often, and I may have even denied it at times. But having reflected much through the years, I’ve realized that this desire, which had always been buried within me, had also been the cause of many of my troubles.

Why? Shouldn’t the desire for an outstanding life be something to be proud of? Shouldn’t this be the foundation for a person’s success? While many people are being criticized for their lack of passion, shouldn’t I be congratulated for this motivating force?

In a way, this tendency to look for the extraordinary in life has helped me achieve much early. It has helped me in my studies as I excelled in many fields and even earned various scholarships along the way. It has helped me find a job that has sustained me and my family for many years. It has even propelled me to shift my career into writing when everyone around me advised me to just concentrate on my stable job as an auditor.

But after years of trying to reach goals and continuously trying to excel, I experienced a plateau in life. Nothing seemed to be working. My financial condition isn’t improving. And there were many days when I even questioned my decision to be a writer. I felt I’m no longer making the kind of difference I wanted to make in life.

I guess that’s when it all started. The tiredness. The lack of enthusiasm.

What do you do when there seems to be nothing to look forward to anymore? When all the excitement is gone?

How is it like to live an ordinary life?

Then the pandemic hit. Things became even more stagnant. I couldn’t even travel the way I did before. Every day became almost the same as any other day.

And what’s that day like? You wake up, you eat, you work, you spend time with your family, you watch some television shows, and then you sleep. And then you do it all over again the same day.

For two years, I had very limited opportunities to go out. Most consisted of buying essential supplies. Later, I’ve done most of the shopping online. How could I risk infecting my family?

Had I known how my life would be changed by the pandemic, I could never have imagined how I’d live through it all. To be confined in your own home and not go anywhere else, and all the while, not achieving anything in your career.

Surprisingly, however, this way of living is what would help turn things around. At least, in my way of thinking.

The ordinary life I have lived so far has helped me realize that it isn’t only in the extraordinary where we can find satisfaction and happiness. Most of the time, we fail to be happy because we are blind to all the wonderful things we have.

Living through the pandemic has helped me to appreciate time with my family more. Whether we’re eating or watching television or merely talking before we go to sleep, I have had the opportunity to love and to be loved. Even when no words are spoken, you know you have each other. You’d always be at home because they are your home.

Our home also became every place we ever needed to be. That’s where we exercised and had our hair trimmed. That’s where we learned to cook countless new recipes. That’s where we laughed and sang and prayed.

All these things have helped me to make this coming year’s resolution: to be grateful for ordinary things.

No longer would I pursue an extraordinary life just for the sake of desiring it. No longer would I hold back my happiness just because I feel I don’t excel in one field or another. No longer would I waste a moment just because nothing new is happening.

I would be grateful for every moment that I live with the people I love. I will look forward to eating with them, appreciating breakfast, lunch and dinner, and all the snacks I’d ever eat in between. I will look forward to bedtime when I shall sleep side by side with the people that mattered to me, secure and at peace because I need not sleep alone.

Every day seems the same, but at the same time, it is different. Each day seems ordinary, but each one is unique and new. It is in the ordinary things where we can find our greatest pleasures. It is with the ordinary activities where you can feel warm and at home.

Happiness need not be a special event in your life. It need not be one goal to reach only to feel empty after reaching it. Let happiness be with you from the very moment you awake until all those sweet hours that you sleep. Let happiness sit with you and dream with you and walk with you. Because that’s how it should be. And that’s how I resolve it to be. To let happiness be as ordinary as every breath I’d ever make.

“I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought; and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.” - G.K. Chesterton

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About the Creator

Jocleyn Soriano

Writer. Poet. Inspirer! Author of Poems of Love and Letting Go.

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