This week on Mom’s Morning show, I’m leading a discussion on one of my favorite topics to read and think and talk about: Happiness.
I’ll be posting some more of my thoughts on the topic this week, but thought I would start with this.
One of the things I practice – and I’m not exactly where I picked up this tip – is to ask myself:
“What is good about this situation? Is there a blessing in here somewhere?”
I’ve found that nearly every time something happens to me in my life that makes me unhappy, there is something good that comes out of it. Even if that thing is only “I can live through more than I thought I could, I’m stronger than I think I am.” 
As an example, people love to complain about gas prices. Not me. I see certain positive things about the current state of affairs. For one, people are taking measures to decrease their use of gas: driving less, carpooling more, staying in more, driving more carefully. In fact I have found myself driving more slowly lately – not that I was an unsafe driver before – but I’m accelerating gently and coasting where appropriate. The thought came to me that traffic fatalities and accidents were probably down as a result of this driving less and slowing down.
And I wondered if anyone had been keeping track of this, and if my guess was right.
Turns out it was true. I read a blog post the other day listing 10 reasons why high gas prices are a good thing. In it, the author quotes an article in USA Today that says traffic deaths have steadily decreased since October of 2007. (Here is another article listing reasons why higher gas prices might actually be a GOOD thing for Americans)
Could it be that our high gas prices are saving lives?
It’s something to think about, isn’t it?
So my challenge to you is, the next time you’re anxious about some challenge in your life, just stop for a moment to entertain this question.
“What’s good about this?”
