Thursday, January 5, 2012

The Happiness Project Day by Day

"The days are long, but the years are short." Isn't that the truth? As I grumble about winter, and days that sometimes stretch on forever, I am also often reminded at how quickly it all happens and how my memory is often sketchy about things that I once thought I would never forget. There are glimpses of my kids childhood that draw blanks when I try to remember them, and yet I swore I would recall every little thing about their life. I have been home with them for almost 12 years, so you think I'd have a grand opportunity to remember all the details of their life as they grew up? Not so much. I also was never disciplined enough to record their daily achievements/tantrums/plain funnies in a perfectly and gorgeously bound journal. If only I had started blogging then!

This year, they will turn 12, 10 and 7, and though the grey hairs starting to sprout on my head are a testament to this timespan, I am often shocked into realizing just how quickly it is all going, and how little I remember of the day to day. This doesn't just go for watching my kids life happen on the fast lane, but I am also more aware of how quickly my own life is going by, and call it a reaction to aging, but I find that I want to record more and more of it as it happens. The thing is, I've never been a journal keeper. I have often felt overwhelmed by a blank page on a journal, and though I admire friends who have kept journal for years and can look back and see how far they've come, it isn't so for me.

As I have a tendency to focus on the negative, I also want to record the good things that I accomplish so I can realize with words on paper all the good things that happen daily and not let the quick and fleeting moments of happiness be burried down under my feelings of frustration, anger and just plain grumpiness. Choosing to find and focus on the bits of happiness found in the day to day, might just be the solution to keeping the nasty feelings at bay? Quite possibly, but taking the time to record and put those happy bits on paper once a day is an affirmation of that choice to choose happiness against negativity, and that really is a sure-fire way to make ME happy.

I had been pondering on all this, how to choose happiness and shut up the nonsense that sometimes goes on in my head when I received this from a very thoughtful friend:


This little treasure happens to be the best compromise between journal writing....and not writing. It's not a blank page that causes me to clam, it's not a gratitude journal that requests for a minimum of five things that you're grateful for in a day (because there are days when it's hard to come up with five things!), it's simply a one-sentence journal that's got me excited! It's a great and easy way to keep track of your day-to-day highlights, and each page contains 5 possible entries for five consecutive years, so that at the end of the five years, you end up with a great collection of the moments you lived.

Getting this quicky journal made me really, really happy and I absolutely love it. This journal was created by Gretchen Rubin, author of "The Happiness Project". The book is fantastic, her website has great tips, inspiring quotes and videos, and this little journal is the icing on the cake. It didn't take me long to fill today's entry...just under a minute actually! If that's the only thing I can do for ME today, then I will be content. Some days, you just don't need much to feel that you've done something worthwile for your ME that brings lasting happiness for the rest of the day!


Wishing you lots of happiness and as much ME time as you can bank today and every day!

5 comments:

  1. Saw this journal at Singing Pebble and loved it, too! An easy but effective way to journal :-)

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  2. What an excellent little journal! Good luck with it!

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  3. What a great and simple idea! I"m sure you'll have many fantastic moments to record, this and every day : )

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