happiness

My New Year’s happiness list

e e cummings bench

In my last post, I talked about how happiness is a journey, and how although trying to improve your life is a worthy goal, we also need to step back from always focusing on the how things will be “better” in the future and focus on how good we’ve got them now.

Since then, I’ve been thinking about concrete ways that I can do that more in my life. Rather than having an official New Year’s resolution this year, I’m going to try to work these activities and mindsets more into my day to day life. I’ve decided to call this my “happiness list.”

My happiness list

  • Hug and kiss The Hubby: when I wake up, when I leave for work, when I get home, at bed time.
  • Take a few minutes before going to sleep to think about the good things that happened that day.
  • Give myself more time to get things done so I don’t feel stressed and rushed. Wake up 15 minutes earlier; start getting ready to leave sooner than I think I need to.
  • Read more books…and really get lost in them!
  • Appreciate the way the weather changes each day and no two days are the same. (Even if the weather is snowy and slushy and icky.)
  • Counter every negative thought with a positive one.
  • Thank The Hubby more for what he does and criticize him less for the things he doesn’t do. (I’m kind of a neat freak and I know I can nag him about that, but he’s a great hubby and deserves me to acknowledge that.)
  • Let go of worrying about things that haven’t happened yet, might not ever happen, or that I have no control over the outcome of.

What would be on your happiness list?

 

~Heart,

Em

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photo credit:  Tony Fischer Photography

10 Comments

  • I LOVE this! Best New Year’s post I’ve read so far 🙂 Over Christmas break, I’ve really refreshed my perspective in terms of realizing how blessed I am, and how to appreciate what I do have instead of what I’m missing! My ‘goals’ were right along the list of yours, stop and smell the roses, take a little time every day to catch my breath, and appreciate the blessings I already have!

    • Aw, thanks, Sara! I have a feeling 2013 is going to be a more relaxing, grateful, and BEAUTIFUL year for many of us! Here’s to the journey!

  • Thanks for turning me on to The Happiness Project! Now I’m reading the sequel and I just convinced my book club to read a happiness-related book (The Geography of Bliss). It’s really helped me focus on the positive and reframe some potentially stressful events. Just thinking about being happy makes me feel happy!

    • I’m so glad to have gotten you into it! It’s one of my absolute faves. It always makes me realize that my happiness is in my control and that life is what you make of it.

      I’ll have to check out Geography of Bliss next!

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