Happy Hangs EVOLVED
I have never felt such a distinct exit from one year and entrance into another. 2023 ended slowly and quietly; 2024 waltzed right in and did the superwoman pose in the middle of a crowded room.
January 7th, 2024, Happy Thoughts did a Thing! We had a Happy Hang!
We gathered in a space of healing to drink hot drinks, eat donuts, meditate and do some Happy Thoughting <— I still can’t find the words for what that sentence means to me, but we know I’m gonna try…
Kassia, Sophie and I after a wonderful event :)
Last year at this time, I had a picture of what I thought success might look like. It followed within the lines of what I had already been doing, it was focused on how to make the product I’d created grow, how to find the right markets, how to get my price points right, how to network and increase visibility, get more Happy Thoughts into the world, and ultimately make enough money to have the choice to live in a home again (while feeling aligned with my life choices).
If you are reading this, you have likely received a Happy Thought from me and heard me stand on my Happy Thought soapbox and tell you that your dreams matter, you can do the things your weird little heart wants to do, and the world needs you to follow your dreams.
All my life, I have been a problem solver. I like to understand; people, situations, decisions, feelings, relationships, etc. It has been a GREAT hurdle to learn that some things just don’t make sense and that’s ok. The balance of experiencing deep observations my whole life and learning to let go of understanding them has shifted my reality entirely.
Within Happy Thoughts I have found relief and energy in the fact that we don’t need to understand each other to love each other. We don’t need to understand each other to accept each other. We don’t need to understand our feelings to feel our feelings. Even more, we can only let our feelings go when we stop analyzing them, when we stop rationalizing, negating, and dismissing them, when we simply (not easily) feel them and let them go.
There are dark feelings that brought Happy Thoughts to life many years ago. It has taken 2+ years and counting to find words for what the hell I’m doing. I still don’t know what I’m doing, but I do feel what I’m doing and I’ve found that is more than enough now.
My absolute favorite part of Happy Thoughts is how they can connect us through a feeling and don’t require any additional information for validation. We can simply be humans near each other and find connection in that. At the end of the day, if we can find love, everything becomes simple. Sometimes loving is leaving, sometimes it’s staying, sometimes it’s speaking, sometimes it’s listening; one of my favorite Happy Thoughts is from Thich Nhat Hanh, he says “You must love in such a way that the person you love feels free.” I LOVE that measure of success.
I don’t need to have the same experience as you to connect with you; the simple basis that we are humans and we exist in this moment is enough. We’ve all felt pain and loss, and excitement and pure joy, we’ve felt alone and scared, and curious and rejuvenated, we’ve felt like we’re too much and we’re not enough and everything in between. We’ve had moments of doubt and confusion and moments of fear and isolation, we’ve had moments of empowerment and achievement and moments of peace and surrender. We all have dreams and none of those dreams are the same; we are unique little butterflies and wonderful little weirdos. The things we try to hide are quite possibly and very likely the best parts of us.
Last year at the equinox, at the summer solstice, I had some down time and was hanging out with a dear friend (hey Barbara!) and we dreamt out loud what we wanted to manifest in our lives. I started letting myself consider that maybe I could do more than products. After all, I’ve been thinking and feeling these things far longer than any product I’ve created. I’m basically a walking Happy Thought at this point… Pretty soon after the equinox dreaming, I inserted myself into the painting of Happy Thoughts at City Tacos in Ocean Beach, San Diego, CA.
Painting those Happy Thoughts blew my mind wide open. Not only did I get a chance to see new avenues of sharing Happy Thoughts, I very tangibly saw how much better we are when we’re together and that we can do SO MUCH MORE! Not only physically, but through ideas and questions and dreaming (definitely physically tho). I asked people if they wanted to come paint Happy Thoughts and so many people said yes! I had nothing but paint/paint brushes to offer and people showed up in a way that opened my brain to possibilities.
I started dreaming about Happy Thought events. I dreamt about gathering in a group sharing Happy Thoughts all over town, I thought about dreaming together at new moons and finding community in believing in the weird things we want to do. It was a thought I loved, but I couldn’t quite catch.
I spent the last 3 months of 2023 in a program to help grow this business (Thanks OHTP!). It was the biggest investment I’d made in myself in years; I knew so much was coming for the business and I had an opportunity to decide if I wanted to keep doing things alone or to allow myself to grow in community. The thoughts that I couldn’t quite catch a month or so ago became attainable in the space created in that community. There was magic in finding a group of people who’s only purpose was to build and grow in whatever way made sense individually.
It was during my final for the program that I FINALLY caught my thought for Happy Thought events; HAPPY HANGS.
My first ever virtual Happy Hang :)
Literally within days, the universe delivered the perfect opportunity to make a Happy Hang reality with Sophie and Kassia.
I met Sophie and Kassia at the one year anniversary for Sophie’s (and Ryan’s) organization Waves of Recovery near LA. Waves of Recovery is a growing organization to support mental health and recovery through the ocean and surfing- when I heard about them I immediately asked if I could bring Happy Thoughts and they said yes! Kassia Meador is an amazing human who could and does have entire articles and blogs written about her (you should read up on her amazingness). The very short version is she is an AMAZING longboarder, an even more amazing human and a savvy business person who loves Happy Thoughts. I gave her a Happy Thought at the event and she immediately wanted to know more. Sophie not only co-founded Waves of Recovery, she was my fearless leader for the Ocean Healing and Therapy Program I’d just spent 3 months in; she and Kassia were on the Happy Thought train immediately, it just took me a minute to figure out how I could fit.
Opportunity arrives when you’re ready.
I am so honored and humbled by the way the universe has worked it’s magic and connected me with so many wonderful humans this year. I have never felt less alone and am forever grateful for the connections Happy Thoughts have formed.
It’s that magic I so badly want to share, I so badly want to create outlets to grow our weird humanness together and find spaces to feel into the fact that we’re more the same than different.
At our event, I got to talk to a room full of people about how wonderful they are and how much their dreams matter. I got to share some of my story and gather in community to do weird Happy Thought things. We drew Happy Thoughts in chalk outside on the sidewalk and then came together to dream about who our future selves are and what that delightful little being is up to. I am so excited to see how this all keeps transpiring throughout this tour across America. I am already planning so many more Happy Hangs and can’t wait to get into the virtual realm so anyone can join!
