Most people have a lot of baggage in their lives….unpleasantness that they carry with them and let cloud the here and now happiness that they could be experiencing. I know this because I have some baggage of my own that is clouding my happiness. As I told a friend recently I have always felt like I have the Midas touch…either that or I have always been super lucky. :) I always got everything I wanted and everything went my way. Until last year that is when I got some news that knocked me on my arse…literally…cancer. Honestly, I never would have thought something like that would happen to me and it had messed with my confidence big time. My body turned traitor on me and made me sick. Now we have some trust issues my body and I. ;)
For the past year I have had a feeling that the other shoe will drop and with an attitude like that it probably will.
But the other day I was talking to someone and they had a BIG situation in their lives and they were hashing out their options. As he went through all the potential ways he could handle it he was very calm and he said he already knew what he was going to do…he was going to “choose happiness.” Say what? It cannot be that simple right?
I think it just might be. Not only will choosing to worry about what “could be” mess up my happiness right now it could be a self fulfilling prophecy. I have to choose happiness.
So last week when Andreea Ayers sent me a t-shirt from her company Tees for Change it was soooo perfect that she sent one that said…you guessed it….choose happiness. These t-shirts are awesome!
Basically these shirts are a reminder to live think positively. As it says on the web site, “We only have this moment – why not make it the best it can be?” The t-shirts come with a variety of inspirational phrases such as be fearless, live fully, laugh often, live mindfully, and chase dreams. I love the chase dreams shirt too. Apparently Andreea came up with the idea for these shirts when she was pregnant and she was continuously bombarded with negative attitudes about her decision to have a home birth. Everyone around her kept reminding her of all the bad things that could happen and how things could go terribly wrong. She was getting this from friends, family, and strangers. And then during a prenatal yoga class the idea came to her that she should have a positive message on her shirt to look down at whenever she ran into one of these negative forces so she could remember to stay positive and Tees for Change was born.
All the shirts at Tees for Change are ethically crafted from 100% organic cotton or a 70% bamboo/30% organic cotton blend. They are dyed using low impact, eco friendly dyes and screen printed with non-toxic, water based inks. In addition to that they have partnered with American Forests Global Releaf to have a tree planted for every shirt bought at retail price. So they are tees for mental change and environmental change…a win, win.
And to leave this post I thought I would share a quote I read on the Tees for Change site: Always listen to experts. They’ll tell you what can’t be done, and why. Then do it. – Lazarus Long
