I turned 52 last week, which officially makes this my "deck of cards" birthday. So I bought a deck of cards as a process tool for this coming year...52 cards...52 weeks. It's a lovely deck of cards, with an M medallion, symbolic of my last name, and I am very excited about what this next year holds for me.
So what am I going to process?
I've been thinking about the four basic emotions: Mad, Sad, Glad, and Fear. Every single other emotion can be classed into one of these four categories. But the interesting part of this fact is how there are three basic "negative" emotional states, but there's only one "positive" emotional state.
There's only one positive emotional state!
There are many ways for this fact to be considered, but I believe that happiness is the core emotional state that we are born to experience. Stating this in a different way, in the absence of fear, anger, and sadness, the emotion that exists is happiness in one form or another. I believe that we are created with happiness as the primary emotional state that drives our entire life journey.
But, if we are inherently happiness-driven beings, why are there so many unhappy people?
I don't know the answer to this question, but there is a metaphor that people use to explain their unhappy lives, the metaphor of the crappy hand that they've been dealt, as if the cards themselves are crappy, which means that they must learn how to play their hand with the crappy cards they've been dealt.
What if crappy cards don't really exist?
I'm not defining how anyone else plays their life cards, but I no longer believe in crappy cards OR crappy hands. I believe that we are created inherently and essentially with a full deck of 52 happiness cards, and it's up to each person to decide for themselves how their happiness cards are defined and created.
But what about them pesky jokers?
Yep, the jokers are the problem...lol. There are two of them, and every problem in life is created by one of the two jokers...lol. I call my jokers "Nature" and "Nurture." Every obstacle in my life has been created by one of these two tricksters...lol...and they sure can create a lot of chaos.
I'm done playing with the Jokers.
I no longer want to focus on the Jokers that create roadblocks to playing with and enjoying my deck of Happiness cards. This year is going to be all about the discovery of how my 52 happiness cards are defined...by me...and I don't care what the Jokers think about all of this...lol.
This year is going to be all about the Happiness.
52 cards...52 weeks...52 positive emotional states of happiness that even the Jokers can't destroy.
I think I'm going to very much enjoy playing with this deck of cards...deal me in!
