Made it through the first book! The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin had great tips to create more happy situations and circumstances in life. Some of my favorites are the "one-minute rule," fight right, bring people together, spend out, and meditation. Am I happier? I am happier because everyday I tried new things and created deeper relationships. I've also had some great conversations about self-help books and ideas since starting this project. I enjoy learning and growing. These things bring me happiness. Gretchen says that people desire to grow; we are happy whether it's difficult or easy growth.
The second self-help guru will be Wayne Dyer. He is said to be the father of motivation. He is 69 years old and claims to be in tip top shape because he doesn't allow sickness into his body. He speaks of inner peace and living the life we are meant to live on this Earth. The first book of his was written in 1976, Your Erroneous Zones, is said to have "brought humanist ideas to the masses." Then I will read his latest book written this year, 2010, The Shift. I'm interested to see what differences there are in his ideals over these 34 years. I'm sure he has grown a lot too since he first wrote Your Erroneous Zones. I will read the first book in the first two weeks then the second book the second week and blog about it my daily experiences and finding. I will start when I return from vacation, 3/29. Thank you for reading!
I recently adopted Daily Happiness habits, some of which I borrowed from the book I found very educational and interesting – “The 80/20 principle” by R. Koch. Since I started to incorporate these habits, or at least most of them, into every day of my life, I found myself to be quite happier than I used to be.
ReplyDeleteMy 10 Daily Happiness habits:
1. Exercise
· Not only I take yoga classes 5 times a week and take walks in the parks, but also have the set of 2 dumbbells and the exercise ball in my cubicle which I use couple times during the work day. Using these equipment helps me instantly to increase the level of energy and elevate the mood – works much better than drinking coffee or eating sugar and does not have any side effects.
2. Mental stimulation
· This activity incorporates reading interesting articles on the internet or the Business Week magazine I have been a subscriber of for years, reading a book (I read a book every day before going to bed if not earlier during the day), having a conversation with a friend on the abstract topic, listening audio books or educational CDs in my car (instead of listening a music which I stopped doing couple years ago, my car is a University on wheels now), writing, solving a problem at work, conducting an online research on the subjects of my interests, learning new words, etc. Doing anything requiring an active thought on my part.
3. Spiritual/artistic stimulation/meditation
· Finding a food for imagination and spirit – watching a good movie, a good comedy show; listening a music; looking up at the sky, at the beautiful Colorado mountains, at the sunset, at the trees; going to see a performance; attending seminars; walking in the park; petting my cats. There is a plethora of options available for any taste buds, meditation is one of them but I yet to give it a try.
4. Doing a good deed for someone
· Sometimes as simple as giving a complement (the more complements I give, the happier I feel), share the useful or interesting information with someone, make someone smile or laugh, have friendly small talks with people.
5. Taking a pleasure break with a friend or a group of friends
· During the week I often accomplish this by having a lunch with a friend or coworker
· Have a phone conversation
· Take a walk in the park
· Happy hour, going out, dinner.
6. Abstain from making negative remarks
· Catching and stopping myself if something negative is ready to slip my tongue. If it slipped before I managed to catch it, make a mental note not to do this again.
7. Catching the negative thoughts in my head and telling myself “ok, here I go again, I do not need these thoughts” and escort them out of my head
8. Giving myself a treat
· Wrote down a list of pleasures I can use to indulge myself (I’ll keep this one private LOL) and give myself at least one of these each day.
9. Count my blessings
· Luckily, I have quite a few to count considering that I was born and raised in Kazakhstan and I do not live there anymore.
10. Regardless of the circumstances, do not feel angry at them or feel sorry for myself
· Well, this is the hardest one
Inna,
ReplyDeleteWow! I love your list. I can believe you do yoga that much because you are in such great shape and dumb bells too!?! I'm going to adopt that practice for myself. I love your ideas of mental stimulation and taking pleasure breaks. I can see why whenever I have met you that you have such a positive radiance about you. It takes work to be happy as your list pints out but it's worth it. I hope more people can benefit from your list. I am going to print this list up and put it on my wall so I can begin to practice.