The SOVA Project is happy to feature this blog post written by one in our team of fantastic SOVA Ambassadors—these are young people who help create meaningful blog posts from adolescents’ perspectives. We hope you can use their post to start a conversation with your adolescent.
This is something that I have recently come across. It is actually quite challenging. For life to be so good. There were days where I never thought life would get better. To look back on the past few days and realize that, finally, you were happy.
There are positive things going on in your life. Whether it is the simple pleasures like maybe a home-cooked meal, or even something larger, like a vacation, a majority of people have had something occur in their lives that brings them happiness. I struggle with being able to accept that happiness can be achieved and stick around.
I think it is hard for me to accept the fact that I have been happy because there’s always this sense of self-doubt. That nothing good could continuously happen to me because that’s not my luck. Those thoughts would linger and make me lose sight of myself and the things I would like to do for fun. Always find time for yourself, time to sit down and listen to music, time to binge a TV show. It is okay to make time to treat yourself. It’s okay to be happy with being happy.
It is important to be able channel your energy into something creative and positive. It could be journaling, some sort of exercise, or even writing. To be able to have to look forward to every day, and something that will make you happy doing. You can hang out with a friend or take time for yourself. I have learned that it is more about the simple pleasures that make me happy, more times than not. Self-care is not emphasized enough in today’s society, and that should be expressed more.
Have you ever talked to your child about happiness? How would you encourage them to acknowledge good things as they happen to them?