Do you envy or celebrate with others?

When was the last time you were happy for someone?

I mean truly happy and joyful for another person’s talent, good fortune, relationship, looks, job, family, a good event in their life.

I love when I access that! For me happiness for others is precious.
Both experiencing it and receiving it from others.

There is a common belief that Finnish people – and maybe this goes to other nations too – tend to envy others and have a hard time being happy for others.

I don’t have that experience at all. I have many people around me – and even people I don’t know – who are happy for me and want to celebrate my and other people’s happiness.

We have this saying and well-known poem in Finland that I hate ”Kell’ onni on se onnen kätkeköön” something like who has happiness you better hide your happiness.

I could not disagree more.

I prefer: shared happiness doubles happiness.

And: shared happiness makes other people happy.

Or Radical Honesty language: we give a chance for others to make themselves happy when we share our happiness.

Lately I have witnessed many people being happy for me.

I feel warm in my chest and expand in my stomach when I think about it. My legs are also warm.

A little smile is coming to my face.

A wrote two weeks ago about my happy event – Pete and I buying a retreat center called Syvilla in Finland.

We have never gotten so many responses to a newsletter. We got emails, Messenger messages, Whatsapp messages and congratulations face to face when we met people and posts in a Facebook group too.

One lovely person wrote ”I got so happy reading your email that I started to cry. I cry now remembering that feeling.”

And ”I am to notice my reactions and that your happiness and success seems to be mine too. I think good news is more important than ever”.

I am feeling moved and a little teary reading this message again now.

What a nice cycle!

Someone is happy for me.

I am happy to hear that they are happy for me.

I am happy for them to feel happy.

So I trust this little sample that we as humans can be happy for others and make ourselves happy in the process.

I think this is also a bit of a choice: I choose to believe in the good in people and I choose to believe that people want good things for me and want to be happy for me.

Sometimes we all struggle and act out towards others – and ourselves – and behave shitty.

I do believe that even underneath the acting out there is a good intent: intent to take care of themselves and the little person inside them who is struggling or afraid.

The good intent is also often about connecting: a person desperately wants to connect and doesn’t know how and their actions come out clumsy or unpleasant.

The belief that we all have a good intent helps me most times to access compassion.

I have made a choice that I rather believe in good than bad.

And that I am rather happy than right.

And I don’t think I have ever met an evil person.

I have met people who have behaved shitty, bullied me as a kid and adult and dumped their shit on me and I don’t think those people were bad or evil – they were just struggling big time and behaved really shitty.

Going back to my happiness!

In case you missed the newsletter you can read it here. 

And look at the retreat center Syvilla here.

You can book a holiday there too! Enjoy the nature and the lake, rowing boats (or snowshoes), fire places, hot tub and Jacuzzi outside and hang out on our own little island!

Sooo:

When did you share your happiness last time with others?

How was that for you?

What are you happy about right now?

Love,
Tuulia (& Pete)

PS: A quick note that the Early Bird price for the Advanced weekend in Helsinki is running out 15th February!

Do you want to practice with other experienced truth tellers?

Do you want feel those juicy feelings of being real and showing yourself?

Are you ready to make new friends and meet old ones?

You are warmly welcome to join us for the Advanced weekend 18-20 March in Helsinki!

Read more and sign up here.