As I walked this morning, the sights, sounds, and smells of the world around me permeated my awareness and provided a backdrop for the thoughts running through my mind. I allowed my mind to go wherever it wanted, flitting from one thought to the next, not always in a logical fashion.
A Question of Importance
As I was allowing my thoughts to run free, a snippet of conversation from a passerby filtered into my awareness. She said to her friend, “She DOES have a life. It’s not like she could get there right away.” I didn’t hear what she said before or after this, but with this little snippet, my mind was off and running trying to fill in the blanks. What had happened? Was someone sick? Why didn’t the “she” in question drop everything and rush wherever right away? Did the speaker sound just a little or a LOT defensive about her (I assume) friend’s choice not to go right away?
After my mind ran through the questions in quick succession, the theme that came to me was one of importance.
Prioritizing Importance = Key to Happiness
I feel that there is a direct correlation to prioritizing the truly important people and things at the top of your list to your degree of happiness with your choices and your life in general. Prioritizing properly is the key to happiness. Who and what is important in your life? Do you assess the level of criticality of a situation before you act or do you always give someone or something the same level of responsiveness, regardless of the facts of the current situation?
When I think of assessing importance, I tend to focus on interpersonal relationships. Drawing upon both my personal experiences and client readings, I think a lot about how people prioritize the people and activities in their individual lives.
We live in a world where many people are not only trying to “out do” the Jones’ monetarily but also are trying to “out busy” this fictional family named Jones. In this self-defined race of achievement, many times people focus on things rather than people and those things by and large aren’t bringing happiness into their lives. I contend the reason for this lack of joy is a lack of focus on the people that are truly important.
Only you can determine what should garner the highest priority in your life. Is it your family? Friends? Sports? Job? Money? Status? ??
Connection Choices
As a medium, I think a lot about how the choices we make on a daily basis, concerning the people around us, can shape our thoughts and feelings and impact our grief when those persons are no longer walking on this Earth in their physical bodies.
I’ve shared before that in today’s instant social media connections world, the most important gift you can share with another person is the gift of being present. I feel that is the best recipe for happiness. Studies show that human connections are what make people happy. Not the size of your bank account nor the number of Faceook friends who like your posts. So why do so many people choose to post about their experiences with others vs. just enjoying the experience with others?
When you receive a call about a loved one who is gravely ill, you have a decision to make. Do you go and visit for what may be the last time—physical body to physical body? Many of us rush to our loved one’s side due to the critical nature of the situation. However, what stops us from spending time with that person without the impetus of a crisis? Is it because our schedules are busy with other critically important activities, or is it because it doesn’t occur to us that spending time with someone is important until the opportunities to do so are nearing an end, or is there some other reason?
