Happiness Archives - Page 2 of 2

10 Reasons to Get Happy :)

November 6, 2014Ana Maria Popa Leave a Comment

I often get questions like – ‘How can you be so positive?’, ‘Why are you so optimistic, don’t you worry about life?’, ‘Why do you smile all the time?’. I also get remarks like – ‘I gotta see you more often, you charge me with energy’, ‘I just have to look at your photos and I have a good day’, ‘Thank you for *something I posted on Facebook*, I really feel it inside’.

One of the greatest and funniest things that happened to me lately was making friends with this really lovely girl, Ruxandra. Well, Ruxandra added me on Facebook, out of nowhere. At some point, I asked on Facebook for help and she shared my status. The result was that through her, a friend of hers contacted me and helped me, so the natural thing to do was to send her a message to say thanks. Well, she was really friendly and we started talking more and more so we decided to meet at a teahouse one evening.

We had a really nice conversation, girl-talk, and I got to ask her how she found me on Facebook so she told me that a mutual friend liked one of my pictures and it appeared on her newsfeed. She then said that she liked my pic, she started looking through my photos and saw that I was smiling in everyone of them, that I had this positive vibe and that she likes and needs someone like that around her. Besides the fact that she is really cute and sweet, that made her even more adorable in my eyes 🙂 And also, she admitted that it was the first time she met with a girl she knew on Facebook. Aww! We kept in touch since then and became friends and we created this habit of seeing eachother once a week.

So, one time, Ruxandra asked me one of those questions I always get. Me being happy, as I told Ruxandra also, is just my natural mood. I like to see the bright side of life and not stress over, well, anything. I’ve come to see that everything passes, good things and bad things also. I try to enjoy the moment as much as I can, every moment even if it’s not that enjoyable. As an example, I even enjoyed having my knee broken. Yes, that might sound weird, but it was the best thing I could do back then.

Long story short, I broke my knee on a second date with this guy who, while wandering the streets, asked me to dance on the music of a street musician. Well, my heels got stuck in the pavement, so my knee broke when the guy tried to lean me back. I fainted immediately and when I woke up, I started laughing. Yes, it might not have been the best move, even the guy asked me if I was okay or if he also hurt my head. My answer to him was – ‘Come on, it’s really funny. You’ve literally got me head over heels on our second date. No other guy has managed to do that!’. Really now, what was I supposed to do then – yell, get mad at him, cry? He didn’t want to hurt me, it was an accident. So I just laughed and drove myself to the hospital to get my knee in a cast.

My point is, whatever the situation you are in, just stay calm. Of course there are moments you can’t, I am not happy ALL the time, it would be stupid to state that. Happy people are not people who smile all the time, but they are those who don’t stress over things they can’t change or control. Instead, they try to find answers and solutions to the issues they encounter.

My personal recipe? Here’s 10 things I like to practice as much as possible:

1. Don’t get easily angry. I understand that by being angry, I hurt myself and lose energy and time over nothing. One of my fav mottos in life is – ‘Getting angry at someone is punishing yourself for their issue.’

2. Don’t analyze everything. I just take things as they are. Good or bad, it’s happening for a reason, even if I don’t know it yet. I just let people and circumstances be. And move on when necessary.

3. If down, take time for yourself to lift your spirits. I realise that nobody can change my mood if I am not able to. Plus, why depend on others to have an effect on me?

4. Workout, a lot! Being physically active makes me more active, more happy, more cheerful, more confident and independent and less predisposed to engaging in unnatural behaviour.

5. Control is not everything. Even at age 16 I was afraid of the dark. It was my way of fearing the loss of control. Now? I just enjoy it. I enjoy the darkness and the fact that I can’t have control over everything in my life. There are too many people involved in it, I can’t control them, so why worry? And, of course there’s a quote that I love and that has become my motto – ‘You can’t control what others do to you, but you can control how you react to what you receive’.

6. Do not fear to apologize when you truly feel sorry or if you feel you did something wrong. Because life is not a game in which someone who apologizes loses. People don’t win and lose in life, and especially not when there’s ego involved.

7. Don’t make expectations of others. Why? Because they rarely live up to them. And in the end who gets hurt? Me. So I just take people as they are and enjoy them as much as I can. (Still, there’s difference between taking people as they come and them making a fool out of you, just because they see you accept them unconditionally.)

8. Be direct. If I have a problem with a person, I deal with that person. I communicate and express my feelings. I don’t get other people in the middle and I don’t search for answers outside my friendship or relationship. Also, comparing people and situation doesn’t do any good.

9. Know your limitations and know when to ask for help. I am far from being an expert in any field, but I do know some stuff about life. And I am really curios of finding out even more. Even so, I know that in some fields I don’t have any interest, so I have to get help with technical stuff, for example.

10. Be willing to take risks, even if you fail. Because to me, that means I have tried something in my life. My failures are the ones that will teach me, not a professor, not anything. No matter what the failure, I am sure that when I come out of that, I will be stronger and know more than I knew when I got in that.

Now, I do have some things I admit I have to work on. I’m not perfect, I’m a human being with feelings even if I learned to control them on some level. There were times when I met people or I was put in situations that taught me the things I still need to learn. Okay, so here they are:

1. I can’t save people. Really now, you can’t save anyone, no matter how much you love them. And in the end, you only hurt yourself, by trying to fix someone else. Even if a person knows they do have an issue, it’s not enough if they don’t act that way. (‘I didn’t need you to fix me, I needed to be there while I fix myself’.)

2. I have poor patience. It’s been my burden and I still fight it… ‘I want it all and I want it now’, that kind of thing.

3. I (sometimes) dwell on the past. I love my memories, I really do, and I like to think about them over and over again. Even of the people in my memories are not still present in my life, I could think and talk about them on any occasion. Well, it’s wrong. Yes, the memories are nice, but those people are no longer part of my life for a reason. And staying in the past and reliving those memories won’t do me any good in the present that I have to live and the future that I have to create. So, my advice to you and myself – learn from your past but then get the hell out of there 🙂

My personal saying? Smile for Today. Repeat Everyday.

31 Days Challenge, Day 16 – I heart Burberry

October 16, 2014Ana Maria Popa Leave a Comment

I do and I am not sorry. I think it’s the most classy, stylish brand ever. I only discovered it recently, like 6 years ago. And I loved their pattern, their logo, their commercials. I think ‘obsessed’ is the word…

But I was in highschool and I do not come from a rich family. So I had no chance in having a Burberry item of mine.

The year that I graduated from highschool and went to university was the year that I thought I deserved a Burberry thing, even if it was the smallest keyring. So I was in Zurich on vacation with my mother and her husband and I wanted to go into the Burberry shop. There, I honestly got lost in all the items they had. From a keyring I asked to see a wallet and my mother was encouraging me – ‘Let’s see that one, but what do you think about the other one, etc’. At some point, I brought my feet to Earth and started looking at the prices too, not just the items. It was far from what I had planned to spend, my well-earned money.

That was the moment that my mother took one of the wallets, the one that I liked best, and told the girl working there to wrap it as a present. Honestly, I was stunned, words can’t even describe the feeling… I started stutter and my face turned red, I couldn’t breathe and I almost started crying. My mum then hugged me and told me that I deserved it, because of the fact that I managed to graduate highschool on my own (she was out of the country for the last two years) and to get into university all by myself. I think that was one of the few moments she told me she was proud of me.

The girl working in the store asked if I was a only child and since I couldn’t talk, my mum told her that I was. The girl then smiled and said that it’s obvious. She made an art of wrapping my wallet as a present. I loved it. The next days I would unwrap it gently, not to get anything torn or damaged. I would just take the wallet out from the wrapping, look at it, touch it, smell it, and then I would put it back, just the way it was.

I still kept the wrapping, just the way it was back then, 4 years ago. Even the seal is intact.

I unwrapped it and used it in my first day of university. I felt proud! Oh, and P.S.: I still have it and love it!

Now, I know this may not seem like a big deal. There are people who receive this kind of present for getting a good grade only.

I can’t be a hypocrite and say it wasn’t about the Burberry wallet, of course it was. But most of all, this memory is about a great wish of mine that I couldn’t have made real at that point, all on my own, with my own money. And it was an even greater surprise given the fact that I didn’t know about it, it wasn’t planned, my mum just saw the spark in my eyes looking at the wallets, and the sadness that I couldn’t afford one.

I think this is the biggest surprise and the nicest present I ever received. This one or another – when my mum was having a business trip to Santa Cruz de Tenerife and she bought a plan ticket for me to join her. I can’t decide yet… Hmm.

31 Days Challenge, Day 15 – Barcelona of My Soul

October 15, 2014Ana Maria Popa Leave a Comment

Last year in September I went to Barcelona. I wrote about that here. And I loved it that much, that I came back in November also.

To me, Barcelona is the perfect place to be, regardless the reason or moment. I found there anything I wanted – fun, beach, beautiful people, sun, handsome men and nice girls, open-mindedness, peace, recreation, entertainment, ice-cream, shopping and sales, etcetera etcetera. Weird people also, but that’s not what I looked for, it’s another story.

When I was there in September, I witnessed their celebration of Catalonia – Diada Nacional de Catalunya, on the 11th of September. Me and my cousin went out that day and they were having a big fiesta, walking on the street and dancing and shouting and being happy and wearing flags or having their faces painted, even their bodies. I couldn’t help but join them. So I entered the first store and got the first Catalonia flag and that was it, I was part of them.

It was that simple.

31 Days Challenge, Day 13 – Happy as A Child

October 13, 2014Ana Maria Popa Leave a Comment

This is the only time I got pulled over by the police for alcohol testing. And that is my item from the memory box.

Last winter I had made a friend, a special friend if you want it. The type of unusual and exceptional person you meet once in a lifetime. We knew eachother for a few years already before we got closer and started spending time together. What brought us together was our passion for driving and cars.

He owned this convertible with the right-side wheel and since I’m really curious, I started asking questions. A lot of questions. Maybe that’s the reason he already gave me the keys and asked me if I want to go for a ride and try it out, from the first day. Maybe he just wanted to stop that avalanche of words.

So we started hanging out a lot more and often. That included having fun and driving.

One winter night, at 2 degrees Celsius, we went for a ride with no specific destination. We got the roof down and I entered my happy mood. It’s amazing how wonderful it was to ride a converted car in wintertime, when it was freezing cold outside but in the inside everything was so nice.

We got out of the town and after not long, the police pulled us over. I was driving. The policeman went on the left side, where the wheel would normally be, but he had a little surprise. He actually said – ‘Okay, I’m gonna talk on the other side then’. I was literally laughing out loud. The policeman started looking confused at me and asked if it wasn’t a little cold for riding with the rooftop down. I started laughing even louder and answered that it’s pure joy. The policeman handed me the alcohol test and asked for ID and registration. When he saw that I hadn’t drink anything, he asked subtle if I was on anything else…

I laughed because he really couldn’t believe how happy a simple ride in the night with the rooftop down could make me. I was like a child. But since everything was okay, he let me go.

My next car is going to be a convertible, there – I’ve said it. I look good in it, don’t I?

31 Days Challenge, Day 8 – The Aww Factor

October 8, 2014Ana Maria Popa Leave a Comment

Know those ‘aww’-moments that you only see in the movies? Okay, well read this one.

It was 4 years ago that I started dating this guy obsessed with McD’s Happy Meal toys. He was a big baby and collected them. (Well, that didn’t ring a bell then.)

And that month, they were having the Star Wars collection. Unfortunately, McD’s doesn’t always have the same toys in every location every week. So, to please him, one evening we started visiting every McD’s location in Bucharest, in order for him to have every toy.

In one location, the last one we got to, I was waiting outside for him as he went to get a Happy Meal. He came back and told me that they didn’t have any Star Wars toys, but they did have another interesting toy. And he just smiled as he stared at me. I wasn’t getting the sign he was trying to send. And honestly, I’m not the type of person to beg someone for anything. So I just let him do his thing.

He pulled out of the pocket a toy from the Barbie collection they had at that McD’s restaurant. It was Barbie’s ring and he asked me if we can stop dating and just have a real relationship already. And then he put the ring on my finger. It was just the perfect moment and I melted.

And if this wasn’t enough, I’ll add in the story of how we met.

It was summer and I needed to go to the doctor, but mine was on holiday. So I asked around and got a recommendation that I immediately took. I was in a lot of pain that caused me not to sleep the last two nights before the ‘event’… You can imagine that I looked awful, not counting the tears running down my face and my red bloodshot eyes. So I step into the doctors’ office, a she-doctor, and she comes in. At some point, she calls her colleague to ask for an opinion… And then HE steps in. OMG, he was the most beautiful and perfect man I had ever seen. I was actually stunned, he was tall, athletic, dark brown eyes and dark hair. He was just amazing. And I looked like cr*p… Great!

The next day I asked my friend from whom I got the recommendation about this perfect man. I was supposed to go back in the doctors’ office for treatment and I needed to know how to act. And then, my funny friend picks up the phone and rings the doctor (with whom he was friends) and asks her about her colleague, telling her that I liked him. Ugh, I could just kill him right then and there, I was that mad at him! And the she-doctors’ reply was ‘Oh, that’s great, cause he likes her too’… I was just speechless. But I calmed down from being angry at my friend.

So, the next appointment that I had, I was all dolled-up. After finishing my appointment, I got out of the building and he comes running after me, to tell me he likes me and that he would like to take me out. He just lied to my doctor that he was going to get something to eat just for that, for me. Still, I had to play tough and asked him if his colleague (my doctor) knows that he does that to her patients. But honestly, I can’t remember a single thing after that, I was already under his spell. He had me head over heels.

If this was a movie, we would be married with kids and be living happily ever after. But now it’s just a memory.

31 Days Challenge, Day 7 – Obsession

October 7, 2014Ana Maria Popa Leave a Comment

Yes, I admit it, I was obsessed with Maroon 5. Even more, I had a big crush on Adam Levine.

maroon 5 post blog anamariapopa.com ada levine meme

Basically.

All this until he became someone’s husband.

And I love London, did I mention that?

So, when my trip to London in January 2014 happened at the same time as the Maroon 5 concert in London, that was it. I would like to thank all the people who made this possible, like Maroon 5 for having the concert, Adam – my Couchsurfing host, Mark – my Couchsurfing friend who helped me get a ticket, easyJet for flying me there, my parents for getting me the plane ticket as a present for my bday and last but not least, to myself, who bought the ticket and planned all this, as a present for birthday, yes.

I got really lucky finding a ticket, since this concert was being held instead of the original one in July 2013 that was cancelled. So the tickets were the ones bought for July and the few ones that were still available in January had a price around 150£. Thanks to my friend Mark, who had an extra ticket, I was the lucky one to have it for 60£. Thank yoooouu, Mark!

About the concert, it was amazing, I loved it, but I got really annoyed with the steward at the O2 Arena who didn’t let me take videos. Pictures were okay, but no videos. Like, why?! It’s not like the whole arena was taking videos of the concert, she had to pick on me since I was the one staying at the beginning of the row. Still, I had one taken, you can view it here.

Robin Thicke was the one to open the concert for Maroon 5 and he was lovely. Not as lovely as Adam, of course, but I was moved by his live performance of Dreamworld.

P.S.: You can see a synopsis of my trip to London here.