Welcome to my new weekly Sunday session. I am wanting to have space on this blog to contemplate and reflect on the deeper aspects of life. To me, a person’s soul is very important. It is the core of who we are. Sunday is a day of the week that I set aside to nourish my soul. It really is a day for soul searching. It is a day I examine how I’m handling life, how I can get better at what I’m doing well and how to improve in the areas that I have failed, because fail I do. Regularly.

Sundays are the perfect day for doing an inventory on what I have to be grateful for and it’s a day that I will most often spend with family and friends. Enjoying one another and becoming better together.

Because I am a Christian, often God, Jesus, The Holy Spirit and the Bible feature in my soul searching. I find my faith keeps me centred and my reliance on a higher power keeps me humble and inspired to keep improving and living my life with passion and purpose. I want to share some of this revelation during a regular Sunday blog post. I know many of my readers may not be Christians, and I hope that this is still a section that you will be able to read and get something out of. Spirituality is expressed in many ways, I hope my soul searching can aid your own soul searching, in whichever way you connect with your soul and spirit.

I thought it would be fitting to start this inaugural Soul Searching Sunday post talking about Happiness. I think being in touch with your soul is a happiness creator. That’s not to say it’s easy and full of laughter all the time. There is a joy that is present when you are being real with yourself and examining the issues and tackling the problems that will make you a better person or help you to maximise your effectiveness in this life.

When times are good, be happy; but when times are bad, consider: God has made the one as well as the other. Therefore, a man cannot discover anything about the future.
Ecclesiastes 7:14

 It is so easy to be happy during the good times in life. Sometimes we can feel guilty for feeling good. Maybe I should be taking life more seriously? I find it reassuring that God wants us to be happy. In fact he explicitly says to be happy. He also recognises that there are going to be bad times. Life cannot be filled with only happy moments. If we have a belief that God is still in control, he is still in charge during the bad times, it can bring reassurance. Happiness is wonderful, bad times have purpose. We don’t know why as we walk through those difficult days.

I think back to the days I struggled with infertility. The crippling disappointment when I would have a period signalling yet another month without a child. The intense pain when I would hear another person I knew was pregnant and I still wasn’t. The hoping, the wondering, the pain and the grief. I was not to know in the future I was going to be fortunate enough to have five children. How much easier those would have been if I had discovered my future. Yet because I did walk that road, when I have increased the intensity of happiness while watching my children grow before my eyes and listen to their ever so cute conversations and cuddle them in my arms. I know how abundantly blessed I am, and I never take this opportunity I have been given to be a mother for granted. It helps me get through the hard days like the rainy day with triplets I described earlier this week.

It’s amazing as I reflect back on my life that the getting through the hard times have made me a happier person in the long run. I have a depth to me that I would not have without those hard times. I have a greater perspective. Depth of character and perspective built into me during the hard times of life really does increase my happiness during the good times.

Has there been times in your life where you have walked through the bad but have made you a happier person later?

Welcome to my new weekly Sunday session. I am wanting to have space on this blog to contemplate and reflect on the deeper aspects of life. To me, a person’s soul is very important. It is the core of who we are. Sunday is a day of the week that I set aside to nourish my soul. It really is a day for soul searching. It is a day I examine how I’m handling life, how I can get better at what I’m doing well and how to improve in the areas that I have failed, because fail I do. Regularly.

Sundays are the perfect day for doing an inventory on what I have to be grateful for and it’s a day that I will most often spend with family and friends. Enjoying one another and becoming better together.

Because I am a Christian, often God, Jesus, The Holy Spirit and the Bible feature in my soul searching. I find my faith keeps me centred and my reliance on a higher power keeps me humble and inspired to keep improving and living my life with passion and purpose. I want to share some of this revelation during a regular Sunday blog post. I know many of my readers may not be Christians, and I hope that this is still a section that you will be able to read and get something out of. Spirituality is expressed in many ways, I hope my soul searching can aid your own soul searching, in whichever way you connect with your soul and spirit.

I thought it would be fitting to start this inaugural Soul Searching Sunday post talking about Happiness. I think being in touch with your soul is a happiness creator. That’s not to say it’s easy and full of laughter all the time. There is a joy that is present when you are being real with yourself and examining the issues and tackling the problems that will make you a better person or help you to maximise your effectiveness in this life.

When times are good, be happy; but when times are bad, consider: God has made the one as well as the other. Therefore, a man cannot discover anything about the future.
Ecclesiastes 7:14

 It is so easy to be happy during the good times in life. Sometimes we can feel guilty for feeling good. Maybe I should be taking life more seriously? I find it reassuring that God wants us to be happy. In fact he explicitly says to be happy. He also recognises that there are going to be bad times. Life cannot be filled with only happy moments. If we have a belief that God is still in control, he is still in charge during the bad times, it can bring reassurance. Happiness is wonderful, bad times have purpose. We don’t know why as we walk through those difficult days.

I think back to the days I struggled with infertility. The crippling disappointment when I would have a period signalling yet another month without a child. The intense pain when I would hear another person I knew was pregnant and I still wasn’t. The hoping, the wondering, the pain and the grief. I was not to know in the future I was going to be fortunate enough to have five children. How much easier those would have been if I had discovered my future. Yet because I did walk that road, when I have increased the intensity of happiness while watching my children grow before my eyes and listen to their ever so cute conversations and cuddle them in my arms. I know how abundantly blessed I am, and I never take this opportunity I have been given to be a mother for granted. It helps me get through the hard days like the rainy day with triplets I described earlier this week.

It’s amazing as I reflect back on my life that the getting through the hard times have made me a happier person in the long run. I have a depth to me that I would not have without those hard times. I have a greater perspective. Depth of character and perspective built into me during the hard times of life really does increase my happiness during the good times.

Has there been times in your life where you have walked through the bad but have made you a happier person later?