The Happiness Project

[fabrisse]

One of my pre-New Year's purchases was the Kindle Edition of The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin. Her reason for undertaking it was that she had a good life, but felt she wasn't appreciating it enough. She quite frankly says that she was afraid she'd get to be old, look back at this time in her life, and wonder why she didn't recognize the happiness she had.

I like that she's very clear about depression and unhappiness being separate things. One of the greatest pieces of information that ever came to me from my singing teacher was that feeling sad didn't mean I was depressed. Learning to tell things apart is huge.

Since tomorrow's a new month, I'm starting my own little happiness project without having finished the book. I know the aims for any given month need to be measurable. Like Ms Rubin, my first month is dedicated to feeling more energetic. My four goals for this month are:

Go to bed by 11:00 p.m. Sunday-Thursday nights.

Swim (at least) one evening a week. There's a pool that's free to DC residents and doesn't take me out of my way on my daily walk. I love to swim, so why aren't I? If after this month, I find I'm not enjoying it, fine.

Write my three things that made me happy journal again. I enjoyed it while I was doing it, and then I just faded away from it.

Do one frivolous thing a week. I haven't been to a museum in over a month. Meeting contradictacat at one doesn't count. I love doing it, but I'm not. If I get in the habit again, I'll bet when the summer concerts come, I'll go to some.

Comments

[fabrisse.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I thought about adding weight training to the list and lots of other things, but I opted for swimming one night a week because I miss it. If getting to bed earlier gives me more energy, then the weight training can come next month or later in the month.

Good luck to you, too.

[eanja]

Especially this time of year, I tend to want to start too fix too many things all at once, and need to remind myself to try to actually get one thing working rather than not keeping up w/ multiple things.

At the moment I'm having a hard time not getting behind at work- I think that w/ the crazy work crunch through the beginning of this month, and then Arisia, I just got so far behind that's it's actually effecting my ability to think clearly. So when I feel like I'm rested and productive, then I can worry about the gym. Though I'm going to make a point to try to get out and walk at lunch every day at least. Between weather and business, I haven't been, but I think even if it's only a 15 minute stroll around the parking lot, it really helps.

[fabrisse.livejournal.com]

My doctor in Germany said that 20 minutes at midday out of doors -- no matter the weather -- in the winter could do more to balance a person than just about anything else. So, yeah, go for it. *G*