Not happy enough? Start counting your blessings…

Have you ever wondered why some people seem to be happy most days or every day of their lives? Simply happy that they have their family around them, that they survive everyday with their payout from their not-so-exciting jobs, or that they were able to eat three to four times a day.

Is it madness, you thought, or is there really such a word as contentment?

Maybe it’s the latter. Happiness comes from being contented for having the simplest possessions, the simplest things in life, feeling the simplest emotion, having the simplest people loving you.

The secret to feeling contented? Count your blessings regularly. From the moment you open your sleepy eyes in the morning until the evening, when you’re about to close your sleepy eyes to sleep.

Not all people who slept the night before where able to open their eyes the next morning, able and healthy and energized to start another day of productivity. You are lucky and blessed to be still alive this morning. There were no given statistics as to how many people died while sleeping — but it happens. I guess waking up in the morning is blessing no. 1.

There are times when I wake up with an aching head or a stiffed neck (from my wrongly positioned pillow) and sometimes I get irritated the whole day. Waking up feeling fine and healthy, for me, is blessing no. 2.

When you go meet your family for breakfast in the kitchen, smile. Be happy. Feel lucky. Feel blessed. Having your whole family — all members alive and well — to share your breakfast (again) and eat together is definitely your blessing no. 3.

Having something to eat for breakfast (some families do skip breakfast especially during this food crisis plus global meltdown phenomenon) is blessing no. 4.

Then you’ll be going to school/work. Here comes your blessing no. 5. With the financial crunch literally crunching most of the people, companies being closed down and unemployment rates rising to their highest peak, don’t you think you were being favored by the heavens to still afford to go to school or have work to earn a living?

Going there, driving your car or commuting (riding a cab), I think it’s needless to say that you’re enjoying your blessing no. 6.

And so your counting goes. Having friends — who love, trust, take care of you — at school or at workplace, is your blessings no. 7. Learning everyday, or at least having the ability to learn, is your blessing no. 8. Being appreciated by someone, or every one, is blessing no. 9. Eating something for lunch is blessing no. 10. Being safe the whole day is blessing no. 11. Having your family (again) to eat dinner with you is blessing no. 12. Eating sumptuous, hot meal to fill your stomach is blessing no 13. Having more time to talk, hug or kiss every member of your family is blessing no. 14.

Saying your prayers, realizing how blessed you are this day and thanking your creator for all these — just having the opportunity to do this — is your blessing no. 15. And finally, sleeping with your healthy body, without worries and problems for the next day, is your final lucky break for the day.

So isn’t it wonderful to realize how favored you are every day? And isn’t it fun to count your blessings and feel happy and contented as your day ends?