be happy

In order to commit to this goal I started my gratitude journal, I’ve been feeling very good lately, It’s amazing how many things there are to be grateful in life. Every day I find something new to be grateful for an it’s amazing. This practise will definitely put you in a good mood. Just by taking a walk outside you can notice all the people struggling to get by and it makes your own life seem so wonderful and privileged. But don’t believe me, just do it. I’ll assure you that your life will improve.

Method: Buy any kind of notebook, in one page write at least 10 things you are grateful for right now, or on that day (I write down the date and day 1,2 or 3, etc). On the opposite page write those things you want in your life as if you already had them and express your gratitud for them. I always write 10 and 10. Follow this practise every day, It only takes 5-10 minutes.

Example:

Page: (9 of july 2011, Day 1)
1.- I’m grateful for having and knowing my parents
Next page
1.- I’m grateful for being able to travel anywhere and everywhere I want without time or job constraints

Hope this helps. Cheers!

I found this summary of the book written by Sonja Lyubomirsky, where she states the 12 scientifically proven ways to boost our happinnes, and I thought it was very interesting. The key is to cultivate only those that resonate with us, not all 12.

So, here they are:

1- Expressing gratittude
2- Cultivating optimism
3- Avoiding overthinking and social comparison
4- Practising acts of kindness
5- Nurturing social relationships
6- Developing strategies for coping
7- Learning to forgive
8- Increasing Flow experiences
9- Savoring Life’s joy
10- Commiting to your goals
11- Practising religiona and spirituality
12- Taking care of you body: meditation + physical activity + acting like a happy person.

Well, this makes a lot of sense to me, and there’s actually a lot of items in that list that I’ve been working on, so, I guess there’s a light at the end of the tunel.

I hope this helps…

This was taken from “PhilosophersNotes” Channel in youtube.

Cheers!

Well, I’m sad to say that I failed completely at the hapiness project, this methid is not working for me at all. All weeks felt like a chore but I left with some good habits, without really planning it I followed some of the advice for other weeks, and I fell like I’m doing more of those things I really enjoy. Several weeks ago I started other project: the 100 day challenge and stated 9 goals to complete in that period, what I realized is many of them are directly related with things that make me happy, so, I’ve been feeling better since that started. More energy because of healthy eating and excercising, I walk more on a daily basis, I go out with friends a lot, I don’t stress as much for work as I used to. I’m seeing a dim light at the end of the tunel. Hope everyone is great!

Ok, really got behind on the project, this week I was supposed to act lovingly and show afection, loving actions and the likes. But I failed completely, I’m not feeling up to this at all, I’m very down and depressed so I’m going to skip this week’s goal and go on to the next week, (I hope someday I’ll be able to be afectionate and stuff).
I didn’t even try to accomplish this for almost two weeks, so I’ll wait more days to proceed to week 6. As of the previous goals I’ve been excersizing a lot, sleeping a lot, and taking care of annoying tasks. For the cleaning part, not doing so well, but better than before starting the project.
Cheers! I hope everyone else really is happy!

Ok, basically I’m in the fourth week of the Happiness Project, this week I was supposed to “Take care, or get rid of a nagging task”.

Well, just let me say that anything that has to do with actual work is always a nagging task to me, but I managed to do quite a bit.

- Finished designing a creativity test.
- Managed to get half way on a report due before april 4th.
- Corrected 2 thesis proposals asigned by march 9th on time.
- Gave feedback to 2 other student’s thesis.
- Responded to e-mails right away.

There’s still my master’s thesiss that is a mayor nagging task, imposible to finish in one week, but I got started with some reading. This task is a tough cookie, there are days when I want to go ahead and finish it and there are days I really want to give up. I’m still not sure what to do about it. I’m ashamed to say I don’t have anything done up to this point.

Anyway, about the prior weeks I’ve been slacking on excercise (only did the workout 2 times last week). I’ve been getting rid of more stuff, not very organized as last week, but trying to keep it up. I’ve even had a hard time with my sleep.

I’m thinking that I should do a quotations board or tape positive thoguhts around the house to be and stay positive, because the project is certainly not giving me as much happiness as I thought, lol.

I know there’s really no method to being happy, but I’m going to keep this up just to feel I’m doing something about achieving this goal.

Maybe in the process of achieving it I could have an epiphany, who knows…

Ok, reporting on the Hapiness Project, not doing as well as I should, this week’s goal was to be tidy and get rid of all the clutter. First roadblock I hate cleaning and getting rid of stuff that could be useful to others. As a Graphic Designer, every piece of paper represents a lot of potential, so if I had to say I’m a hoarder of something it would be of pieces of paper, cardstock, etc.
Anyway, I really did try to get rid of stuff, and I did it for the first 3 days, then I forgot about it. Accomplisments:

- Half full trash bag.
- Organized my desk, cleaned out 2 drawers, did my bed every day and followed roughly the one minute rule, the results, much more organized bedroom, but not much more organized rest of the house, all in all, I feel a lot better about the space I live in, although I wouldn’t say I’m happy, I just feel less stressed about it.

I’m still doing the exercise rutine everyday, only rested yesterday. I’m only doing Tracy Anderson 40 minutes workouts and seeing some results (an added bonus). Not much energy though, otherwise fatigued but I hope it gets better.

Ok, It had been a while since I’d done any exercise but I did really try to get something done every single day, although by the lengths you can notice I’m slacking, although I think it’s a good start, so here’s what I did:

Day 1: Jackie Warner 20 minutes. Power Circuit training.
Day 2: Pilates 20 minutes. Anna Caban.
Day 3: Jackie Warner 15 minute workout. Power circuit training. 3 hours of pottery throwing.
Day 4: Really sore by now, only 15 minutes of stretching in the morning and 20 minutes of yoga P90x at night.
Day 5: Pilates, 20 minutes, total body workout and slim waist from 10 minute solutions. 3 hours of pottery throwing.
Day 6: Tracy Anderson: Mat workout, 1 hour, cheated like 20 minutes.
Day 7: Hiking 30 minutes up the mountain.
Day 8: Tracy Anderson, some of the cardio instructions 30 minutes, FAIL. Then the Leg workout (Iron Man) from youtube: 20 minutes.

So, there it is, It’s been a rough week getting used to working out again, only drawback is I’ve been eating more than usual, so next week I’ll try to get back on track with the calorie intake. I’m using livestrong for that.

Next week: de-clutter all my apartment, one drawer at a time, not looking forward to it, but, I’ll post my results.

I know this is a big challenge, so, to tackle it, it has to be reduced in many many chunks until I finally achieve it.
Although this is my main goal in life, I actually never thought about actively achieving it. lately I’ve been in the search for my passion thinking that there lies my happiness, but today I found something else that I think will help me.
It’s called The Happiness Project, from Gretchen Rubin. (http://www.happiness-project.com)
Ok, so, there’s a lot of things in there.
First I’ll try to soak in the Happiness Manifesto, although there are a few things I disagree with, I’ll keep an open mind.

As of today Saturday Feb. 26 I’m starting the happiness challenge, it’s like 20 weeks. All described in her youtube channel.

So the first Month is ENERGY. I like this!, I think I really need to feel more energetic. I’ll try to make a weekly entry as I follow the challenge.

Month 1, Week 1: Get sleep, this is easy, I don’t have to do it, actually I sleep a lot, fortunately I have the time to do so…

MY START:

Month 1, Week 2: Exercise. Ok, not that easy, but today I did:
- 20 minutes of Jackie Warner (it’s hard!)
- 20 minutes of Work on the garden, picking and throwing buckets of soil for my one foot garden…

Next week we will see if I applied this with consistency…