And here we are - the end of another month. How did I do in my March Happiness Project?
No dumping - I think I did pretty well!! Looking back on the month, I definitely feel like I did a much better job of not dumping my complaints about work out (and onto others). I asked a friend the other day if he felt like there was a difference this month, and he said yes! His comment was that although I've still talked about things that irritate me, this month it has been more isolated to very specific incidents, rather than just general complaining. So I'm still complaining, but less? I'll take it!
The chapter in the book related to the month of April is titled Parenthood. Obviously, this topic is not applicable to me, but tonight, I was looking back over the specific bullet points that Gretchen (the author) had listed for the month, and I think I can make some of them my own..
Sing in the morning - She aims to sing in the morning because it seems to have a cheering effect on her daughters. I certainly am not going to get in the habit of singing to myself in the morning, but I think that there is something else I'd like to commit to doing in the morning in order to put myself in a better mood each day - exercise! Many of you may remember when I did the #10kRunStreak, and although running in the January cold at 6 am after only a few hours of sleep didn't always seem like a happy moment, I really think that it helped me get through a challenging time at work. This time, I'm not necessarily going to run every morning, but I'd like to do something. Of course a quick run or a workout in the stairwell are always good options, and I recently have gotten into this yoga video by Tara Stiles as well. All easy things that can take less than 15 minutes but will give me a sense of accomplishment and register some activity on my Fitbit One at the very least. (I literally just thought of this while I was writing this post, so we shall see how this goes!)
Acknowledge the reality of people's feelings - Gretchen applies this to her kids, but I think I will be a bit more selfish and just apply this to myself. I want to be consciously acknowledge my own feelings. I've mentioned previously that I've started a bullet journal. And I love it. But I don't do it consistently. I want to. I'm going to. I want to put at least one bullet down a day. About a feeling. There's got to be at least one thing worth feeling each day, right?
Be a treasure house of happy memories - I guess this kind of goes with the one above in the way I think it would be applicable to me. Bullet journaling is a good way to preserve memories, but I think this blog is also a good way to document the good (and bad!) times. So I am going to try to post ten times during the month of April. (I also just thought of this one right now...)
Gretchen's last bullet point for the month is to take time for projects, but I really don't feel like this one resonates too much with me. So I'm going to acknowledge the reality of my own feelings (ha!) and skip it.
And of course, I would be remiss if I didn't mention that the inverse of parenthood is being someone's child. Many of you know and love Nancy Lin, and many of you also know that I didn't always make it easy for her when I was growing up! As each year passes, I try harder and harder to make up for my teenage years. It's definitely not a one month project, so I definitely won't treat it as such, but I am always thinking of ways in which I can be better at "childhood" too!
Alright, this somehow turned into quite a long post! Time to wrap it up. I need to go to bed soon if I'm going to get up in the morning to work out!
No dumping - I think I did pretty well!! Looking back on the month, I definitely feel like I did a much better job of not dumping my complaints about work out (and onto others). I asked a friend the other day if he felt like there was a difference this month, and he said yes! His comment was that although I've still talked about things that irritate me, this month it has been more isolated to very specific incidents, rather than just general complaining. So I'm still complaining, but less? I'll take it!
The chapter in the book related to the month of April is titled Parenthood. Obviously, this topic is not applicable to me, but tonight, I was looking back over the specific bullet points that Gretchen (the author) had listed for the month, and I think I can make some of them my own..
Sing in the morning - She aims to sing in the morning because it seems to have a cheering effect on her daughters. I certainly am not going to get in the habit of singing to myself in the morning, but I think that there is something else I'd like to commit to doing in the morning in order to put myself in a better mood each day - exercise! Many of you may remember when I did the #10kRunStreak, and although running in the January cold at 6 am after only a few hours of sleep didn't always seem like a happy moment, I really think that it helped me get through a challenging time at work. This time, I'm not necessarily going to run every morning, but I'd like to do something. Of course a quick run or a workout in the stairwell are always good options, and I recently have gotten into this yoga video by Tara Stiles as well. All easy things that can take less than 15 minutes but will give me a sense of accomplishment and register some activity on my Fitbit One at the very least. (I literally just thought of this while I was writing this post, so we shall see how this goes!)
Acknowledge the reality of people's feelings - Gretchen applies this to her kids, but I think I will be a bit more selfish and just apply this to myself. I want to be consciously acknowledge my own feelings. I've mentioned previously that I've started a bullet journal. And I love it. But I don't do it consistently. I want to. I'm going to. I want to put at least one bullet down a day. About a feeling. There's got to be at least one thing worth feeling each day, right?
Be a treasure house of happy memories - I guess this kind of goes with the one above in the way I think it would be applicable to me. Bullet journaling is a good way to preserve memories, but I think this blog is also a good way to document the good (and bad!) times. So I am going to try to post ten times during the month of April. (I also just thought of this one right now...)
Gretchen's last bullet point for the month is to take time for projects, but I really don't feel like this one resonates too much with me. So I'm going to acknowledge the reality of my own feelings (ha!) and skip it.
And of course, I would be remiss if I didn't mention that the inverse of parenthood is being someone's child. Many of you know and love Nancy Lin, and many of you also know that I didn't always make it easy for her when I was growing up! As each year passes, I try harder and harder to make up for my teenage years. It's definitely not a one month project, so I definitely won't treat it as such, but I am always thinking of ways in which I can be better at "childhood" too!
Alright, this somehow turned into quite a long post! Time to wrap it up. I need to go to bed soon if I'm going to get up in the morning to work out!
Mary,
ReplyDeleteYou are my good daughter whom I am very proud of. I wanted all your friends and blog readers to hear the feedback from your mom. I love you.