Choose Happy by Holly Nelson

Shortly after having my fourth baby, I found myself having some ‘baby-blues.’  I was in a slump and couldn’t seem to get out of it.  Things that I normally wouldn’t give a second thought to got under my skin, and I would allow them to fester.  It was becoming a growing problem that, luckily, I realized a change needed to happen.  After a particularly hard day and going to bed with a heavy amount of guilt I placed on my shoulders for not being a ‘happy perfect Pinterest mom,’ I knew change had to happen and happen that day.  As I lay in bed that night, I tried to think of something positive I had said that day and couldn’t think of one thing. NOT. ONE. THING.

You’ve all heard the saying, “If mama ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy.”  Well, that saying was absolutely true in our house.  My negative attitude was rubbing off onto my family.  My kids seemed to walk on eggshells on how I would react to a mess or a fight or if their rooms weren’t clean, and I hated it. I hated to see how my negativity was affecting their sweet happy selves

I decided then that I would CHOOSE HAPPY.  I made a big sign that says “CHOOSE HAPPY” and hung it prominently in my home, somewhere I would see it multiple times a day.  I started small by writing down just one thing every day that made me happy.  It was hard at first.  Especially on the days that my newly mopped kitchen floor was covered in powdered sugar or when my couch had a one-of-a-kind Sharpie artwork drawn on it by my 2-year-old or when I burnt funeral potatoes that needed to be at the church in 15 minutes… but I did, and I wrote them down each day.  Just one thing.  It was amazing to see a change in my attitude just a few days in and how much easier it became to find several things a day just a few weeks in.

President Thomas S. Monson said- “Of this be sure: you do not find the happy life, you make it.”

You make it by the daily choices you make.  You make it by how you react to a situation.  You make it by learning to love your life.   You make it on how you treat other people.

Now, I’m not saying that since I’ve made the choice to CHOOSE HAPPY that my life has been all rainbows and sunshine- there are still hard days but a quote that has helped on those ‘ready to pull my hair out’ kind of days by President Gordon B Hinckley states:

“Those who have faith and move forward with a happy spirit will find that things ALWAYS WORK OUT."

In John 16:33 it states “These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace.  In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.”