Anecdotes - Happiness Comes from Within

Written by Markus

17 October 2019

A man who I greatly admire, Gaur Gopal Das, tells a great story:

“A lady who was over 90 years old, but had a great flair towards dressing up well, arranging her hear, wearing makeup. She and her husband were married to each other for 70 years. After the departure of her beloved partner and having no children and nobody in the family to care for her, she decided to move to a nursing home.

Even on the day she vacated to her nursing home, she dressed up elegantly and looked gorgeous. After arriving at the nursing home she had to wait patiently in the lobby for hours before her room was ready. When an attendant helped her make her way to the room, she gave the lady a visual description of the tiny space that she was meant to occupy.

I love it, the lady expressed, with the enthusiasm of an 8 year old who has just been presented with a new puppy.

“Mrs. Jones, you haven’t even seen the room yet. Just wait”, the attendant remarked.

“Well, my joy has nothing to do with the room” the lady replied. “Whether I like my room or not doesn’t depend on how the furniture is arranged, it depends on how I arrange my mind. Happiness is something you can decide ahead of time and I have already decided to love my room. To love the people around me. To love my life. It is a decision I make every morning when I wake up”.

The attendant listens with her mouth wide open as the lady speaks.

She continues: “The greatest asset we all have is the power to choose how we feel. I can spend the whole day in bed, focusing on those parts of my body that no longer work or I can get out of bed and be thankful for the parts that do work. Each day is a gift and as long as my eyes can still open, I will focus on today.”

Gaur Gopal Das says: “Ladies and gentlemen, only problems happen automatically, but happiness is a choice”.

So if you tell yourself every morning that today will be another great day in your life, no matters what life is throwing at you, by embracing your happy memories and all that is going well, you in fact have made the choice to be happy.

Look at what you can do and use that to become even better.