Happiness Project

I think I'm late on this bandwagon, but I just started reading the Happiness Project. However, unlike Gretchen, I am too eager to get started to wait until the new year. So I am launching my happiness project now. This project is still in line with my "Discovering the Universe". Perhaps my discoveries will simply be through brighter, happier lens.

This project might also be a fantastic way to keep me accountable to my 21 days of positive thinking. 21 days of positive thinking was born from this TED talk. If you haven't seen this yet, I highly recommend it. Shawn Achor posits that if you do the following things everyday for 21 days you can effectively reprogram your brain to see the world in a more positive way and in the end be happier.  Sounds simple enough, right?

1. 3 Gratitudes: a new set of three things each day.  This trains your brain to recognize and see the positives in your daily life.
2. Journaling: write about something positive that happened within the last 24 hours.  This allows you to relive the positive feelings.
3. Exercise: even if it is only for 30 minutes a day, this exercise teaches you that your behavior matters.
4. Meditation: gives you a break from the ADHD culture that we are so use to.  It slows you down and allows you to concentrate and focus.
5. Random Acts of Kindness: something as simple as writing an email praising or thanking someone in their social network.  Sending good vibes out into the universe can only be a good thing.

Technically, I'm on day 10 or 12 of my on-and-off 21 days of positive thinking.  But in an effort to get a clean, fresh reprograming (this analogy is making me feel like I'm that robot I joke about being all the time) I am going to start back at day one to be on a non-stop 21 day streak.

Day 1:

My 3 gratitudes: (1) Thankful I have health insurance because otherwise I would have paid an arm and a leg at the doctor today. (2) Thankful I have air conditioning because though it is beautiful here, it is still summer in Arizona. (3) I got to see Michael Thompson on TV!!!  It gives me happy butterflies to see people doing what they truly love to do for a living.  Keep it up!

Journal entry:  I am so thankful for my brother.  All day we sit at work, either working hard or hardly working.  It is nice to have company, to have people send me random videos like this one to brighten my day.  I am so thankful that though my brother doesn't really understand me, he is always there to say "how's it going?" in the morning or even a simple "ya" after I've just finished a tirade on the fact that my library card is going to expire soon.

Exercise: Okay, it is only day 1, but I am going to count moving as exercise.  I unloaded a bookshelf and took it apart today to sell after I posted my ad on craigslist (isn't the internet grand?).  I promise I'll do some sit-ups or jumping jacks later.

Meditation Topic of the day: Gratitude. I think that was a good one.

Random Act of Kindess: I sent a snail mail letter to a dear friend of mine.  I love snail mail, and someone's got to keep the post office going.

That's all for now. I'll think of more interesting things to do in the meantime.