FEELING GOOD

Food that one savors

Receiving a nice flavor

Helping others is a pleasure

Giving is a treasure

On a bus no extra seat

Offering yours is a treat

Entering a store

So kind to hold the door

    What relates to feeling good?  Being kind?  Being generous?  Being thoughtful?  Being polite?  Being courteous?  Using ethics?  Using etiquette?  It seems that each time any of these attributes occur there is an expression of a real authentic and comfortable connection with life.  In many respects there is no monetary or material cost.  It is, however, very gratifying for one who is involved in any of them.

    Most people face issues of one kind or another during a lifetime and sometimes, come stress, anger, frustration, disappointment or sadness.   Despite these obstacles when you experience diversions from these issues, certain behaviors result in one feeling good.  For example, walking past someone you don’t even know catching one’s eye can evoke a friendly smile bringing a moment of feeling good.

    When you do a favor without anyone asking for it, your mind has allowed you to think beyond your present stress and there are moments of feeling good.  If you are caught up or preoccupied feeling sorry for not reaching a goal, extending yourself to help your neighbor carry her groceries to her car is an act of generosity that can make you feel good.  It’s funny how the little things can take the edge off frustration.  When you are faced with what appears to be an insurmountable problem in balancing your checkbook, step away and you can find a resolution to your frustration by offering to assist your spouse to put a box up on the shelf.  Then, when you return to the checkbook, your mind has cleared enough to find another approach to the problem and you feel good because you balanced the checkbook.

    Etiquette often referred to as using manners goes far beyond those of Emily Post, famous for her writings on such matters.  When you are sneezing and coughing near other people, you can feel good, even momentarily, when you are courteous by excusing yourself.  There is also a connection between ethics and etiquette.  

    If you have been brought up with a moral code of behavior, it encompasses certain values that are important to you.   When standing in line to go to a movie, someone cuts in front of you and it can be both a breach of etiquette and unethical behavior.  Seeing a movie is your way of finding relaxation from a stressful day with family problems.  You can step away from being upset, to think clearly and feel good.   Somehow, recognizing that your place in line will not make you lose out to go to the movie and the other person’s behavior, although unethical was not your behavior.   Feeling good comes about very rapidly and is not a form of rationalizing.  It is an authentic feeling based upon your ability to move beyond your instant emotion.  Thinking can allow you to feel good.  Remember James Brown’s song?
                                             “I Feel Good !”