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

[rhiannonhero.livejournal.com]

am on mobile. forgive lwrcase and shorthand. and typos. about depression not being the same as happiness, I think that goes both ways. not only does feeling unhappy not equal depression, but being depressed does not, ime, equal unhappiness. for example, when I was depressed, there were times when I was a happy person but still suffering from depression. like I still understood myself as happy, but the depression was still in charge. I hope i'm making sense. it is a subtle but important difference, imo. I remember being really pissed off when someone mistook my depression for unhappiness. they said something like, "you are a very unhappy person," and I was madbecause I wasn't unhappy, which was somehow worseb in my mind, but being run by the illness if depression. make any sense?

also, yay for this project!

[aurora-novarum.livejournal.com]

I assume this free pool is an indoor one, because I can think of one reason you may not want to do that just yet. *looks outside* Yeah, one good reason. ;-)

Go you on happiness project!

[eanja]

I'm also trying to make a point of getting to bed earlier for while, though I haven't been doing as well as I'd liked. It finally dawned on me that possibly a big part of the reason I've been having so much trouble focusing and feel like I'm just never getting anything done is that I'm just tireder and hence stupider than I realize.

I am also really hoping to get to the gym more, but am waiting to see how I do w/ the getting to bed part since I'd usually get up earlier to go to the gym before work.

I do usually try to be appreciative, but I have been feeling like I'm to kind of rushed and fuzzy to really be using my days wisely. So maybe I'll put that book on my reading list as well.

And now that I'm done talking about me-good luck w/ your project!

[daylyn.livejournal.com]

You know, this is a fabulous idea. I'm glad to hear that your DC pool is indoors, though. ;-)

You know, I think I'm going to go to a water aerobics class this week (and head back to my yoga class... and just start going back to the gym in general). I had been doing really well for a while and then just stopped going a few months ago. I'm concentrating so much on work now that I'm falling apart everywhere else. So not good...

Thanks for the inspiration and enjoy your happiness goals this month.