Inherently Happy

Happy Tension has no power to crush you—it’s completely in your control,
You can use it to meet that deadline, run that race, or stand your ground,
Without worrying about fatigue or collapse—not when you have a clear goal,
To choose strength over worry, confidence over dread, that’s where Happy is found.

[full text below]

Ep 464 - Happy Tension

We begin as always 
with the Happy Creed.

We believe in Happy, 
in Balance and Growth, 
of being Mindful and Grateful,
Compassionate and Understanding.

Yowza
Haha
My Happy Friends!

Ever notice how your body reacts when you feel anxious or stressed?
Clenching up, getting tense, and maybe even holding your breath?
Trying to relax seems impossible because everything feels so compressed?
And when you finally do calm down, you avoid tension like grim death?

But avoiding it doesn’t make it go away—in fact, it makes it much more scary,
So that the next time you feel pressure, you also have that fear to deal with too,
Then what do you do? Well, you do those things when they don’t feel necessary,
Hold your breath, clench your fists, spin around, but then stop before you turn blue.

Learn the feeling of being able to go from calm to tense, and back to calm again,
Train your body and mind to recognize the feeling without fearing what you’ll lose,
You’re the one who decides how you react—it’s not a question of if but when,
When will you take charge of yourself? After it’s too late? Or when you choose?

Happy Tension has no power to crush you—it’s completely in your control,
You can use it to meet that deadline, run that race, or stand your ground,
Without worrying about fatigue or collapse—not when you have a clear goal,
To choose strength over worry, confidence over dread, that’s where Happy is found.

Haha
Yowza

Now I’m not saying that we should never try to get things right—I proofread,
And still find myself looking up punctuation rules all the time, but so what?
It’s humanizing to acknowledge that we’re not perfect, so take heed!
And forgive yourself, forgive others, and maybe even make light of the scuttlebutt.

[full text below]

Ep. 463 - Happy Humanizing

We begin as always 
with the Happy Creed.

We believe in Happy, 
in Balance and Growth, 
of being Mindful and Grateful,
Compassionate and Understanding.

Yowza
Haha
My Happy Friends!

I normally record these episodes over and over until I can get them just right,
But as this one is about forgiving ourselves for being human, I’m only doing it once,
So, even if I mess up, I’m going to try to keep going and hopefully still keep it tight.
This is take number one, so let’s see if I can do this without looking like a dunce!

I make mistakes all the time—usually small ones, but sometimes not so small,
I’m a writer, so you’d think my grammar and punctuation would always be great,
But I average about one typo every paragraph, I don’t claim to be a know-it-all,
And while I don’t like it when I misplace a letter or a comma, I don’t get irate.

I’ll fix it if I can, or make a quick apology if I must, or sometimes make a joke,
Like if I misspell a name in an email, which people have also done to me,
I know it’s not the end of the world, we’re all human, it’s merely a keystroke,
But I want it known that I like getting names right, though I give no guarantee.

What really cracks me up is when I encounter someone who hates mistakes,
It might not be obvious at first because they may not say anything about yours,
But the second they make the slightest error themselves, they slam on the brakes
And apologize up and down, begging forgiveness, just short of crawling on all fours.

I like to mess with them most of all, being mindful that it may stem from trauma,
I’ll start off by letting them know it’s nothing that can’t be fixed—if that’s indeed true,
Or if not, that it’ll be a valuable lesson for next time, and that it’s no cause for drama,
Then I might throw in a cheeky little “is there anyone tougher on you...than you?”

Now I’m not saying that we should never try to get things right—I proofread,
And still find myself looking up punctuation rules all the time, but so what?
It’s humanizing to acknowledge that we’re not perfect, so take heed!
And forgive yourself, forgive others, and maybe even make light of the scuttlebutt.

Haha
Yowza

People can always count on me for honesty, and for compassion as well,
I want them to know where they stand, but I try to be encouraging too,
I just prefer Happy Honesty, which isn’t mean or harsh, and yet doesn’t oversell,
It just shows respect in a way that’s fair and connects the real me to the real you.

[full text below]

Ep. 462 - Happy Honesty

We begin as always 
with the Happy Creed.

We believe in Happy, 
in Balance and Growth, 
of being Mindful and Grateful,
Compassionate and Understanding.

Yowza
Haha
My Happy Friends!

I want to make one thing very clear, I am not against being polite,
Having good manners is respectful, something my mom always believed,
Where it can go wrong is if you are politely lying—because that ain’t right,
You can still tell the truth in a nice way, it all depends on how it is received.

When I was very young, cute and popular, I thought I knew who my friends were,
But it turns out they just wanted to be seen with me because I was well-liked,
Later, when I was awkward and sickly, those so-called friends started to transfer
Their loyalties to my bullies, an act about which I was very much not psyched.

But at least I knew the truth, eventually, and though painful, I prefer truth to lies,
I prefer to face reality and base my decisions on what is real, not what’s fake,
In my teens, I made friends again, something I felt pretense would jeopardize,
So I let people know all about me from the start to prevent future heartbreak.

I was engaging and friendly, silly and disarming, a good listener and forthright,
I didn’t flatter, but neither was I cruel, I just wanted to be honest and fun,
One friend laughed at my jokes so much I tried to amuse her with all my might,
But I later found out she was just being polite, thus ending my comedy run.

Not out of spite, I just didn’t want to force her into displaying a false state of mind,
I consider it far better to be truthful in a nice way, then give a wrong impression,
My mom would eat food she hated if someone served it to her—just to be kind,
While I would thank them for the offer, but decline as an act of truth not suppression.

If that meant I wouldn’t be invited back, then at least I would know why,
While my mom might get stuck eating everything she hated with no way out,
If I feel someone is being too polite with me, then there’s a tactic I often try,
I’ll rib them a little, even lightly push them to be honest and remove all doubt.

People can always count on me for honesty, and for compassion as well,
I want them to know where they stand, but I try to be encouraging too,
I just prefer Happy Honesty, which isn’t mean or harsh, and yet doesn’t oversell,
It just shows respect in a way that’s fair and connects the real me to the real you.

Haha
Yowza

 

It’s not that I’m Monster Happy, really, for who really likes monsters—even them?
It’s that I’m willing to look for the Happy within who can connect with the Happy in me,
And if they appear to be Callous and Mean at first, well, I can take a little mayhem,
As long as they don’t insist on delusion or destruction, for that’s no way to be free.

[full text below]

Ep. 461 - Monster Happy

We begin as always 
with the Happy Creed.

We believe in Happy, 
in Balance and Growth, 
of being Mindful and Grateful,
Compassionate and Understanding.

Yowza
Haha
My Happy Friends!

I know how to talk to monsters, even those of a high monster station,
I don’t show blatant disrespect, nor aggression, but neither do I cower,
I remain steadfast in my patient dealings, never triggering consternation,
But using good humor, good counsel, and a quiet sense of power.

I’ve known many monsters in my day, you see, as perhaps you have as well,
I’ve even been a monster once or twice, and as such can relate to their pain, 
So I try not to judge them too harshly even if they like to raise a little hell,
Now this is not to say I accept or condone it when a monster acts inhumane.

But I can take a lot of heat, my skin is tough, my mind and heart are sound,
And if a monster wants to share, I’m perfectly willing to listen to their woes,
For we all need someone who doesn’t mock us when we wish to get profound,
But they must avoid being too monstrous to me, never stepping on my toes.

I knew a chap in college once who hated me from the jump,
You see, I was friends with a girl he liked, and so he felt I was in his way,
So he told his chums to jeer and shun me, to reduce me to a lump,
But I’m made of stronger stuff than that, my feet aren’t made of clay.

And as it happens he fancied himself a fellow writer and so we shared a class,
His work was good and intricate, too, and he obviously cared quite a lot,
But he got bogged down in the details, making it about as clear as tinted glass,
And then I delivered a fun and riotous tale that never lost the plot.

And he instantly forgot all his hatred for me, and we became the best of pals,
I let him know I appreciated his work without avoiding the flaws in the story,
He was grateful I took the time to comment on his characters, themes, and locales,
He was no monster, just a bard like me who loved fiction in all its freedom and glory.

So, I guess it’s not that I’m Monster Happy, for who really likes monsters—even them?
It’s that I’m willing to look for the Happy within who can connect with the Happy in me,
And if they appear to be Callous and Mean at first, well, I can take a little mayhem,
As long as they don’t insist on delusion or destruction, for that’s no way to be free.

Haha
Yowza

Some consider humans to be sinners, but being inherently Happy is hardly a sin, 
It's merely our natural state of Balance and Growth that comes from deep within.

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Ep. 460 - The Sinner’s Guide To Happy Living

We begin as always 
with the Happy Creed.

We believe in Happy, 
in Balance and Growth, 
of being Mindful and Grateful,
Compassionate and Understanding.

Yowza
Haha
My Happy Friends!

So many things are sold to us that promise to improve our lives, 
But part of those pitches is that our lives need improving,
So, they start out by telling us we’re bad, broken, dirty, or covered in hives,
And only they can save us, so we better get moving!

But I disagree with all that, I think we start out Happy deep within,
They may call me a sinner, and that’s fine, they can say what they like,
I don’t consider myself born bad, being inherently Happy is hardly a sin,
It’s a natural state, a factory setting, a benefit you get without having to go on strike.

So, I don’t need fixing, just reminding because life can make it easy to forget,
Forget to be Nice to others and to ourselves, forget not to spiral and sway,
We can still stumble and falter and make decisions we later regret,
But as long as we keep mindful of the fact that we’re still Happy, we’ll be okay.

Haha
Yowza

Fully commit to whatever the task is at hand, join in, be mindful, and get into the swing, 
Happy Presence is choosing to be aware of where you are, and deciding to do the thing.

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Ep. 459 - Happy Presence

We begin as always 
with the Happy Creed.

We believe in Happy, 
in Balance and Growth, 
of being Mindful and Grateful,
Compassionate and Understanding.

Yowza
Haha
My Happy Friends!

Whatever you’re doing, commit to it completely, be fully present, 
Don’t wish you were somewhere else, it’ll just undermine what you have to do,
Splitting your focus and attention, thus making life unnecessarily unpleasant,
So, even if you don’t get to pick what to do, how you approach it is still up to you.

As I was writing this, I started to get tired, but instead of wishing I could take a break, 
I went ahead and took one, setting an alarm for an eight minute power snooze,
Which turned out to be just enough to help me regain my focus and stay awake,
And all because I didn’t try to fight it or wish for something else, all I did was choose.

At right about quitting time at my day job, I was asked to help with a chore,
I like to help whenever I can, in general, but I will admit the timing wasn’t great,
I was trying to finish up some other stuff, but they needed my help a little bit more,
So, I agreed--and as such I fully committed to the goal, as the deadline couldn’t wait.

It would’ve been no good to grumble and drag my feet as that would help no one,
Not them, not me, and certainly not the work at hand, so I set to it as fast as I could,
But pretty soon it was clear that there no time to do all that had to be done,
They needed half a dozen projects in thirty minutes--I’m good, but not that good.

I had to let them know that it’d be tough to even complete one--let alone all,
I wasn’t splitting my focus, or trying to quit, I was doing it, but the clock was ticking,
Then someone realized that even if we missed the deadline the sky wouldn’t fall, 
The projects would auto-renew and so there was no need for us to be nit-picking.

So, all of that was for nothing, you may well say--but no, that’s my point, you see,
By fully committing to the task at hand, by joining in and getting into the swing, 
I was helpful, fully present and not thinking there was somewhere else I should be,
Happy Presence is choosing to be aware of where you are, and deciding to do the thing.

Haha
Yowza

The world is full of humor, some bad, some good,
But a lot of that depends on which stance you take,
And I don’t mean pretending for I don’t believe you should,
I’m talking about genuine levity, something you don’t have to fake.

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Ep. 458 - Good Happy

We begin as always 
with the Happy Creed.

We believe in Happy, 
in Balance and Growth, 
of being Mindful and Grateful,
Compassionate and Understanding.

Yowza
Haha
My Happy Friends!

I may have my low stretches,
My times of trouble and strife, 
When I feel like one of them wretches
Who’s losing at the game of life.

But that’s when my imagination kicks in,
That’s when I daydream and create,
That’s when I take my Inherently Happy spark for a spin,
And allow my heart, mind and spirit to activate.

The world is full of humor, some bad, some good,
But a lot of that depends on which stance you take,
And I don’t mean pretending for I don’t believe you should,
I’m talking about genuine levity, something you don’t have to fake.

Today at work someone wrote to ask if I’d been impacted by a new regulation,
I did a little research to see, but it turned out it doesn’t apply to me,
I kept the conversation going since she clearly wanted to talk about the situation,
After venting for a spell, she said there was never a dull moment-- I had to agree.

So, I responded by saying that I dream of dull moments--which is silly, I know,
But sometimes things can get a bit hectic and so uneventful times can seem nice, 
She said that made her laugh and so a work email turned into a comedy show,
She agreed that life could get complicated and society often exacted a heavy price.

I long ago realized, even while bullied for years, that some good could still be found,
I could find occasional points of connection, share a joke or even help them out,
Bullies are people too--it may not seem like it, but all of us are equally earth-bound,
And so we share far more than we may think we do, something I will never doubt.

Those moments of ceasefire in their warfare against me, we few and far between,
But every once in a while I made a lasting friend because I always look for the good,
You might say I’m Good Happy, determined to find what others may not have seen,
For I know the true tragedy is denying your own humanity, something you never should.

Haha
Yowza

You deserve love even if it's hard to come by,
You have value even if it's tough to find,
There's a spark deep inside you that refuses to die, 
An Inherently Happy source of your spirit, heart and mind.

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Ep. 457 - Bad Happy

We begin as always 
with the Happy Creed.

We believe in Happy, 
in Balance and Growth, 
of being Mindful and Grateful,
Compassionate and Understanding.

Yowza
Haha
My Happy Friends!

Have you ever felt that you were bad?
Not as in a failure, or in a foul mood,
But that you’d gone completely mad,
Where something was fundamentally wrong with your attitude?

I used to feel that way because I was bullied for years, 
Every support system I thought I had failed me,
My school, my neighborhood, my family, my faith, my peers,
I couldn’t understand why nothing helped to even the slightest degree.

Everything felt like a personal attack,
And I started daydreaming of vengeance on my own behalf,
Of increasingly gruesome ways to fight back,
And instead of bothering me, they made me laugh.

I was turning bad, when once I had been so good, 
Once I had been popular and well-liked,
Never imagining any darkness could cloud my golden childhood,
So that when it did, the pain and terror spiked.

And it came out in destructive ways,
I broke things, I burned things, I cut myself too,
In order to impress others--but to prompt fear, not praise,
Which only isolated me further, which didn’t help my point of view.

I convinced myself that bad was good, that being mean was fun, 
I didn’t need friends, faith or family, I smoked and hung out in a graveyard at night,
I pictured scenarios where I would destroy just about everyone,
But even at my lowest point, I still felt that it was unfair, that something wasn’t right.

That I still deserved love even if it was hard to come by,
That I had value even if it was tough to find,
That there was some spark deep inside me that refused to die, 
An Inherently Happy source for my spirit, heart and mind.

And I’m so glad I never let go of that notion,
I’m ecstatic that I never completely gave up hope, 
Because the Happy that connects all of us is an endless ocean,
And acknowledging and embracing it is what gives life infinite scope.

Haha
Yowza

Shame Happy means taking every mistake as proof that you're the worst,
Instead of treating them as a chance to grow,
You have to believe that you deserve good things first,
And accept that you're Inherently Happy, because you are, you know.

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Ep. 456 - Shame Happy

We begin as always 
with the Happy Creed.

We believe in Happy, 
in Balance and Growth, 
of being Mindful and Grateful,
Compassionate and Understanding.

Yowza
Haha
My Happy Friends!

Life can be a lot, but we can control our reactions like they’re on a dimmer switch, 
Where we regulate our responses, turning them down when they try to go too high,
It takes practice, and an intentional mindset to soften the scream of that fever pitch,
But it’s well within the power of the Balance and Growth we all have to hit that bullseye.

Part of the trick is not being afraid of the extremes, so that you don’t panic,
This is why I recommend training your emotions through roleplay or art,
For it helps you teach yourself to recognize the moment you begin to feel manic,
Allowing you the time and confidence to adjust those patterns before they start.

All the feelings we think of as good can turn bad if we let them go long-range,
The same way the bad ones can be manageable if we don’t let them go that far,
So, something like shame, for instance, can help nudge us towards change,
Or it can turn toxic if we internalize it and mistake it for who we really are.

Then we become Shame Happy, taking every mistake as proof that we’re the worst,
When literally everything that happens to us can be treated as a chance to grow,
But that’s only possible if you believe that you deserve good things first,
And accept that you are Inherently Happy, because you are, you know.

Haha
Yowza

 

We don't have to be so Form Happy, we can just let life be messy and live it anyway as best we can.

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Ep. 455 - Form Happy

We begin as always 
with the Happy Creed.

We believe in Happy, 
in Balance and Growth, 
of being Mindful and Grateful,
Compassionate and Understanding.

Yowza
Haha
My Happy Friends!

It’s nine-thirty at night as I write this, I often start late, that’s kind of the norm,
But I still usually finish writing, recording, drawing, and posting by midnight,
I usually make the lines rhyme, which forces me to keep it nice and tight,
Changing the content, while staying on message, but rarely playing with the form.

But life isn’t always so consistent--for example, not fifty miles away there’s a wildfire,
I get alerts on my phone and there’s evacuations already, hundreds of acres burned,
What can you say to a person whose whole life has become so dire?
Is Balance and Growth really what they need when their world is upturned?

Well, maybe, I’ve been through fires myself since moving to the West Coast,
Been evacuated, even burned out of my home, and keeping perspective can help,
Learning to let go of what doesn’t matter, looking for joy where you can find it,
Kindness can come from unlikely sources, connection and compassion can be found.

We don’t have to be so rigid,
We don’t have to be so strict, 
We don’t have to be so Form Happy,
We can just let life be messy, 
And live it anyway 
As best we can.

Haha
Yowza