Interesting question…especially as, gratifyingly, a lot of answers bombarded me all at once. From the very mundane to the really special.
Happiness is a choice. You can be unhappy doing something you might otherwise love as much as you can doing something you dislike. Equally, you can be happy doing both if you have chosen to be. I know it can be difficult to make that choice sometimes, I truly do, but I often stop myself when I feel I am spiralling and remind myself – happiness is a choice. And I am choosing to choose it or at the very least reminding myself to choose it, always.
That said, there are some things which are more likely to make me happiest than others.
I am, at my heart, a historian. I simply love immersing myself in history either through reading historical fiction or throwing myself into a serious piece of research. I am at my happiest when I am knee-deep in finding the answer to a question I might have about, say, the French Revolution or the American War of Independence, or Joan of Arc or the Council of Nicaea. All sorts of periods and topics really grab me and I can get happily lost down the rabbit hole of research for hours. I love it. Equally, I love visiting historic sites and am very happy when wandering around a stately home or the remains of a castle. On holidays I prefer going to places where there is an abundance of heritage for me to indulge in. So, on one holiday to Corfu I was beside myself to be going over to Albania for the day to see the World Heritage Site there which is just chocked full of Greco-Roman remains of an utterly astounding quality. It is a huge site and simply beautiful. So, basically, anything to do with history and I am very happy.
I am also very happy in forests. Just walking amongst the trees, in silence and listening to the wind ruffle through them is for me a profound experience. I have written before about how I had one of the most intensely spiritual experiences of my life in Elvedon Forest (on the borders of Norfolk and Suffolk in England) where, whilst in the midst of a cancer battle, I felt the presence of…something…and the intense sense that if there was nothing else to live for, being in nature was a strong enough incentive. I felt a strong sense of love and peace infuse me in that moment and it’s no coincidence that it was in a forest and my favourite forest to boot. I love trees. I think they are majestic and hold so much wisdom within them. A sense that they are benevolently looking over the earth, looking after the earth, and all its inhabitants. They are the protectors in some way. Touch the trunk of a tree and you will feel the earth’s energy pulsating through it.
Equally, I am happy walking along a moody, windswept beach. I prefer beaches in the autumn and winter rather than the summer. At a time when they are less occupied but still so beautiful. I adore listening to the sea, to the endless undulation of the water as it rises and falls at the moon’s behest. The wind as it skims along the sand. My favourite beaches are in Norfolk where they appear to be endless. I do love other seas such as the Mediterranean and oceans such as the Pacific but, for me, there is something about the cold, dark and unforgiving North Sea that calls to me. I’m not allowed to swim in the sea any longer (unless it’s at bath temperatures, I have my emergency meds nearby and there’s a lifeguard – not much to ask!), but nothing will stop me from watching it and being utterly mesmerised by it.
I am happy spending time with my family. Last weekend it was my birthday and we went to Colchester Castle and then on to a Korean restaurant. It was just the three of us and it was a relatively rare day of laughter, fun and togetherness. Those moments in time do make me very happy, especially watching the joy on my son’s face. Like me, he loves a heritage site so it was as much his idea of heaven as it was mine. When you have a day like that, it makes you greedy for more.
Finally, I am at my happiest when I am being creative. Whether that is creativity through writing or through helping others via coaching. I love tapping into that stream of consciousness that drives my thought processes and really brings me to life. When my brain is running at a hundred miles a minute, brimming with ideas and possibilities. I love it. Bringing them all – or some of them at least – down to earth and on paper is one of my favourite things and does make me very happy. It’s why I wouldn’t take ADHD meds – I don’t want to lose those hyper-focus times.
There are lots of things – big and small – that make me happy. Fundamentally, happiness starts within me. It’s my choice whether to be happy or not. In theory, I could be fed up even in a castle in the forest while researching its history with my family and writing about it! It would be incredibly difficult, but I could be. I would, though, choose to be incredibly happy doing that as much as I choose to be happy scrubbing the bathroom clean!
Louisa Simpson 