Which Room Are You In?

Want to be happier? More content and less aggravated or distressed by the little things? Feel more gratitude? Experience more perfect moments? Appreciate them when they arrive? It’s all here. You get to control what you work on when, and what problems to close the door on and leave for another day.

Get ready to enter the room that is bringing you down. First step:

• is your space for thinking, reflection and asking the big questions: What’s my purpose? What is my role in the world? How can I do more of what I love? It may not be a room but an activity like a run, a ride on the train, a relaxing bath. It’s where you get away from it all (and everyone) and think.
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  holds childhood memories, yearbooks, trophies, any past event. Painful moments and childhood snapshots all belong down here.
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  is for friends, neighbors, your social life. Envy and how you measure up happen here, as well as too many social obligations.
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  is where everyone gathers for emotional “nourishment” even if it’s just to talk out logistics and decide who’s going to do the chores.
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  is for dealing with parents, grown siblings, nearest and dearest. Anyone you can be your fullest self with and they still love you.
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  covers intimacy–sex, love, desire, our connection to our mate or our search for a life partner.
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  is for all your parenting dilemmas, including do you want kids? Got ‘em? Well now the fun begins, as well as all the frustration.
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  is for body image, aging, vanity, health and wellness. The scale and mirror are both here, but so is the floss. Focus on the floss.
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  is for work inside and outside the home. It’s for career ups and downs, money stress, and of course all those bills to pay.
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  holds your emotional heirlooms and family expectations. From a long line of doctors, don’t want to be one? Welcome to the attic.
• Illustration by Chris Long / cwc-i.com