Every person has a different natural bent. My natural state is happy contentment (unless someone else’s negative bent is put upon mine).
Some have a natural state that rests in anxiety. Some are low and heavy. Some can’t sit still, and their comfortable place is an uncomfortable freneticism, perhaps even trying to earn their way to eternal salvation by constant self-sacrifice.
I think I can thank my genes for the daily optimism I feel, but I can also thank my parents for it. They were both happy, content people. My mom kept lightheartedness, laughter, and nonjudgment alive in our home every single day, and my dad was chipper, even keeled, and kind.
Some people have endured familial hardship and have a hard time finding a happy plumb line…(to read the rest of this article, click here to be taken to my column on theOrcasonian.)
I love Eckhart Tolle too. His books have been the most powerful and important books in my life. The Power of Now comes first, then A New Earth. Oprah Winfrey loves Eckhart so much she did a series of podcasts back in 2009ish. That’s where I first learned of him. The things he said resonated. I thought, “Well, that was life-changing,” and then promptly (mostly) went back to my old habits! Now I read his books every day. Just ten minutes a day to stay present. What a gift!
The word twee comes to mind