I have been enjoying the 100 days of happy projects that some of my friends have been sharing on Facebook of late. I am assuming it stems from the book the Happiness Project.
Over the last few years I have been embarking on my own happiness project and have come to realize that happiness is really a choice that we make. In the same way that we can choose to be healthy or unhealthy, value where we are or resent where we are, every single second of every single day we are choosing between happiness and unhappiness. Between fear and love.
And happiness is a gift; it’s not something that eludes some people and blesses a few it is a gift that we give ourselves because we decide that feeling happy feels better than feeling sad and when we begin to live consciously, working on cultivating our own happiness becomes as much a part of our routine as brushing our teeth, cleaning our face.
It’s often easier to go “un-concsious” to believe that life is a hand that is dealt to us in which we have no say. That fate will deal us a hand and we must accept it, good and bad.
I really believe with all of my heart that this is not so. That in any moment we can choose to see something in a different way. We can choose peace over anger, we can choose love over fear and in time, like when we train our bodies to be fit and healthy, we can train our minds to seek out the positives in any circumstance because they are always there.
One of the exercises I have my coaching clients work on when they are struggling with feeling happy, is to make a list, as exhaustive as possible, of all of the things that make them feel happy, from a little smile to full on excitement and to promise themselves that they will commit to doing at least one thing from the list each day. In the way that we devote time to cleaning our bodies we should devote time to cleaning our minds with things that bring us peace.
I realized I had never actually made such a list so I set about doing it right away….
My happy list
Saying “I love you”
Spending time with my friends
New pyjamas
A long bubble bath
Smelly candles
Horse riding
Pampering my little panda pony friend
Cuddling my cats
Listening to my favourite music
Laughing
Having pretty nails
Buying myself flowers
Kissing
Cooking nice foods
Reading a good book
Walking in nature
Sitting in my garden
Watching Sex and The City reruns on tv
Visiting my parents
Arranging days/nights out with people I love
Writing in my gratitude journal
A roaring fire
New lip gloss
A great meditation
The feeling after a work out
A yoga class
Swimming
Sunshine
Making new friends
Making someone smile
A nice glass of wine
Strawberries
Singing in my car
Cuddles and hugs
Getting a massage
Reminiscing about fun times
Appreciating
Living in the moment
Burying my face in a horse’s mane
Giving compliments
Looking at the stars
A new dress
Reading my magazine when it comes out each month
Cheese and biscuits
Eating out
Putting my feet in water
Being by the sea
Collecting sea shells
Bluebells
Roses
Making daisy chains
Giving myself a facial
Watching the birds
The sound of running water
The full moon
Sunshine
The smell of baby powder
Listening to a positivity webcast
Feeling valued
Freshly washed bedding
New socks
Reiki
Learning something new
Dancing
Chatting to my neighbor over the fence
Christmas time
The seasons changing
A beautiful picture
A lovely accent
Good manners
Sharing good news
I will probably add to this list and am happy to say that I pretty much do or appreciate at least one thing from my list every single day.
Happiness IS a project and it doesn’t always come easy, but working on cultivating a happy outlook, I can say with conviction makes life more bearable whatever circumstance you find yourself in. I can’t say I spend every moment of every day in ecstasy, but I sure do appreciate those moments that I do and feel as I notice them and cultivate them, that the number OF them grows and grows and when you give out a little happiness it can not fail to come back to you and top up your happy quota that little bit more 🙂
Like anything in life…you get back what you put in and what you want for yourself you should give freely to others…so work on your own happiness and then share it!
x