MY Happiness Project

I've been an avid reader of Gretchen Rubin's The Happiness Project blog for a while now. However, it never occurred to me until tonight that I would like to undertake my own happiness project. Naturally, I will be recording my progress here. Like Gretchen (I feel a bit funny calling her by her first name, I don't actually know her hehe) I will write my happiness commandments.

THE EIGHT COMMANDMENTS FOR AN IDEAL MEGAN

1. Love myself
2. Send and recieve love
3. Shimmer and shake
4. Be the fun
5. Let it go
6. Live the bigger life
7. See beauty everywhere
8. Be free

Some of these (and the inspiration for most of them) were taken from this post of Gretchen's and the comments to the post.

I am also going to be writing resolutions. These are kind of kin to the commandments, but they are more quantifiable. They're things that I can be graded on, almost.

RESOLUTIONS

1. Get enough sleep
This is quite important to me as I rarely sleep the advised eight hours a night. I have noticed, though, how much happier and nicer to be around I am when I have had those hours.

2. Wear fun clothes and/or colourful nailpolish at all times
I like this because not only will doing this remind me of my commandment to shimmer and shake, it also encourages me to see the fun in what I'm doing. It's also hard to feel unhappy with electric blue nailpolish or bright and fun clothing on :)

3. Compliment five people every day
This is tied in with my commandment 'send and recieve love'. I love being praised and I want to pass that happy feeling onto others.

4. Make time for activities that will make you happy
There are things, like reading my favourite books, which give me the same lingering smile as overcast weather or hot chocolate. I want to make more time for these simple pleasures in my life in the pursuit of my larger goals.

5. Actively remember the good times by keeping a diary
In addition to this, I will also be beginning a one-sentence journal (as per Ms. Rubin's idea). I think this is a great way to record my life and the events or thoughts in it that mean something to me without feeling the pressure of writing a thousand words every day.

6. Make a happiness scrapbook
I'm going to create a book that whenever I'm feeling blue I'll see pictures and quotes and tickets/whatever else to instantly lift me up again. I already keep all of the items which I associate with happy memories in shoe boxes but I want to make an easily accessible way to view these all at once for a concentrated exposure to bliss.

7. Eat healthily and exercise
This contributes to my overall wellbeing. As a vegetarian, I already watch what I eat a bit but I know that I definitely need to be doing more to make sure I'm getting all of the nutrients that I need. I also need to exercise more to become a healthier, and consequently happier, person.

8. Stand up straight and smile
I'm quite a tall girl and as a result of being quite self-conscious about this for a while I've developed terrible posture. I want to rectify this by standing up straighter and smiling more.

I might add more resolutions to this list as time goes on but in the mean time, that's it. (Can you tell that eight is my favourite number?) I'm quite excited about this project. I think it will be really beneficial for me.

xoxo,
Megan

P.S. I'm just going to write a quick love note to sparkly and glittery nailpolish. I love it so much, it never fails to make me happy. Mwah!