Fake it til you make it!

Would you consider yourself a happy person? When you lay in bed at night what are you thinking about? Do you let circumstances in your life decide what level of happiness you are at for the day?

As someone who used to be happy depending on circumstance, let me give you a few tips on how to be happy no matter what you go through.

I have realized that being happy is almost always dependent on your thoughts. If your thoughts are negative, your life will suck. Sorry, but its true. This is something that takes a lot of discipline to change, especially if you tend to be a negative person.

Here is the thing, most negative people don't think they are negative. I always thought I was a positive person, but let me give you an example of how I was letting negativity rule in my life.

My husband is a firefighter. One of the sacrifices I make to be married to that handsome hunk is the insane schedule. He works 24 hour shifts every third day, and if he works overtime he is gone for 48 hours straight. I will tell you right now that after being married for 4 years next month, I have yet to get used to this schedule. It gets lonely, and it is sometimes hard to deal with our kids all by myself for that amount of time, but I have learned to be happy despite all that.

Before, I would often get in a feeling sorry for myself type mood and text my husband some sad little message about how I was feeling. Misery bred more misery and I would even get depressed sometimes. Don't get me wrong, it's ok to feel bummed once in a while, but making it a habit is what gets you in trouble.

I read Joyce Myers, Battlefield of the Mind, and let me tell you that book changed my thinking completely. Now instead of sending a little pity party message to my husband about how unfair my life is that he is gone and I am all alone, I send a positive and uplifting message about how thankful I am that he works so hard to take care of us and how much I miss him.I had to fake it til I made it because I didn't really *feel* thankful towards him the first few times I sent that type of text, but I knew that I *should* be thankful, so I did it anyway.

 Let me tell you, since I have made a habit out of doing that instead of a sad message, I can truly say, I rarely ever have moments where I feel down anymore. I am genuinely more thankful and happy in my life than I have ever been.

The first few times I did this, I didn't really feel a change, but when I made the decision to never go back to that poor me mentality, not only did my attitude change, but my marriage has gotten stronger, and we have been blessed in so many ways I can't even name them all.

Give it a try! Replace your negative words with positive ones and give God the chance to do what he wants to do in your life! I would love to hear about your success :) xxoo