The Happiness Project Marches On

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Consistently posting about my happiness project 2025 continues to be a challenge. Just a week after my last post I got hit with one of the more intense seizures that I’ve had in the last few years which opened the door to getting sick. Add to that the simple reality that February in an elementary school is one of the most wearing months for kids and staff with cold weather, long days, and sniffling noses all around and I’ve been just worn out!

I am thankful though that I started this happiness project this year. I think it’s played an important role in getting me through the stress and darkness that is February and is helping me see the light ahead as we march in March.

Due to my seizure early in the month and the days of illness and recovery that followed I missed nearly a week of recording my progress toward my goals and, quite honestly, likely missed much of my daily efforts to in favor of just sleeping. Still, I came out strong. I only recorded three days that I went completely without watching any television though I think there were one or two more during my two weeks of illness and seizure recovery time. I also successfully met my stretching goal on 14 days, meditated on 18, and did my dedicated creative time on 16 days. Again, these are just the days that I recorded and I missed 5 days of recording because I was just too exhausted from my seizure, work, and illness.

I feel pretty good about what I’ve accomplished so far and it’s helped me just feel good. I’ve picked up my knitting again, finished a hat, and am nearly done with a gift for someone special to me. Stepping away from the tv has allowed me to quiet my mind and let myself heal from the challenges each day working in special education brings. I am reminded how the screen acts as a drug. It only numbs the brain for a moment, but the stress is still there and comes back stronger all the time. Turning off the screen lets me turn down my brain and let that stress out. It heals me.

So far March is starting strong. I missed meditation on the first two days, but I’ve also had a couple days already without any television and I’ve been spending more time outside taking longer walks. It all balances out. This project is reminding me daily to keep an eye on how I am treating myself and encouraging me to take the best care of me that I can. How are you treating yourself? How can you take the best care of you possible? Wishing you all the best in the spring to come!

Happiness Project 2025- Starting February

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Okay, so I’m not doing so great at getting a post out to my blog at least once a week to update the world on the status of my happiness project. Maybe that’s okay. Maybe every two weeks or so will be just fine for the updates. What does matter, at least to me and I suppose that’s what’s most important in this project, is that I am doing a good job keeping up with my commitments to myself with the project itself.

January was all about maintaining my daily meditation, doing a daily stretching routine, and building in some creativity time into each day. I tried to dedicate at least 15 minutes each day to each of these activities. I’ll admit that some days I fudged a little and maybe meditated or stretched for only 10 or 12 minutes, but even on the short days it felt good. Creativity time kind of went the other direction. Creativity time has felt wonderful enough that there’s been quite a few days that I had to cut myself off after a few hours in favor of having dinner or maybe just going to bed. I’m also now the proud owner of a new paint by number of Van Gogh’s “Starry Night” which should provide me with entertainment for quite a while to come and several new skeins of yarn which also promise great fun.

February will be continuing much the same. I’ll keep meditating, stick to my creativity time, and continue to stretch every day. This month I’ll also cut out tv/videos for at least two days a week, other than those that I watch for work. I’ve had many times in my past when I had no television and didn’t watch videos on a computer. I’m seeing now that those have often been the happiest times of my life. Yet, I go to Netflix or Youtube or whatever online video source to numb my mind. So, it seems time to bring back the brain. I expect I’ll be listening to more audiobooks while playing with my art supplies and just doing more reading. Stay tuned for what comes next! What’s happening in your happiness journey?

My Happiness Project 2025: Update 1

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Wait a second, two weeks have passed already??? Wow! Even with so many kids at school sick, making our numbers low and slowing everything down, the world sure speeds up when you go back to work after winter break. When I started this project I was wrapping up a relaxing two week holiday break from my career as a special education teacher at a local elementary school and wondering how I might survive the upcoming semester. This project is a much needed tool to keep this teacher not only afloat, but thriving.

My goals for January are spending at least 15 minutes daily being creative with my arts and crafts supplies, 15 minutes in meditation, and 15 minutes doing qi gong or another similar stretching exercise. Here’s what’s been happening so far and what I’m learning.

Back in November, when I first came across the idea of the Happiness Project, my search for a wellness planner didn’t find much in local stores. Ultimately, I wound up going online and buying a flowered paper wellness planner from a company in Australia. It’s turning out to be a fascinating learning tool and great way to keep myself on task with my goals.

Each day, I turn to the front of the planner where there are four graphs each showing the months and the days of the month. I’ve labeled each graph with one of four title; health (in January that means qi gong or other stretching exercises), creativity (any sort of playing with art supplies), spirit (meditation), and connections (I’m still defining this, more on it in an upcoming post). So far I’ve succeeded in meeting my health goal 12 of 14 days, creativity 12, spirit 13, and connections 8 of 14 days.

From there I go to the two pages dedicated to the week. The first pages has small squares to write just a sentence or two about my day, a surprisingly insightful exercise to look at what’s made me happy or sad or whatever feeling for the day. The second page for each week has spaces to write and track my goals, note my gratitudes, list what I’ve positive and self things I’ve done each day, note my exercise for the day, and write my meal plan for each day. It’s maybe a five or ten minute exercise each day just acknowledging my day, who I am, and what I’m doing right. It feels good to acknowledge the little bits. I can feel myself grounding and getting stronger.

So, what have I noticed so far? Just a few simple, small things I suppose. First, fifteen minutes with art supplies can easily turn into an hour or two or more. It just takes getting started. Once started, creative time is a superb mind emptier. Nothing feels better than a cleared mind, that time when you realize you’ve spent and hour or two or more just focused on the colors and textures totally forgetting about all the worries of life. Second, it is hard on many evenings to get started with even just fifteen minutes of qi gong or whatever relaxing exercise. After a long day at work, even the idea of stretching can feel too much. But, if I can get myself to do that first stretch, I can do the second and in just a few minutes the chi is flowing more freely and everything just feels better.

Outside, the Wisconsin night is frigid and dark, but my happiness project is offering a bit of much needed emotional warmth in the Midwest winter. Play time, meditation, stretching, and relaxing, it is feeling good being intentional about caring for myself. I highly encourage healthy self-care, whatever that looks like, for you.

Starting My Own Happiness Project in 2025

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Starting 2025: Recognizing My Guides

Starting 2025: Recognizing My Guides

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Early in her book “The Happiness Project”, Gretchen Rubin speaks to the overarching principles that seemed to emmerge for her. What she created were her own ‘ Twelve Commandments’ and a set of ‘Secrets of Adulthood’, tools that would guide and support her in reaching her goals in her happiness project. While I’m not quite connecting with either the ‘Twelve Commandments’ or the ‘Secrets of Adulthood’ structures as she framed them for myself, the idea of the overarching principles or guides makes sense to me so I’ve been asking myself what guides me in this journey of growing happier through my focus on creativity, health, spirit, and connection. Here’s what I’ve found. It is a list that will inevitably change with time and experiences, but these are my guides for life today. I hope these guides might provide something for you to meditate on as well. Please do share your thoughts in the comment section.

  • Imagine yourself looking down a long tunnel. At the end of that tunnel is a child, a baby. That baby is the seventh generation. When we do what is right for that child, we are doing what is right for the world around us: Miigwitch (thank you) to the Anishanaabe people especially my old friend Walt Bresette for sharing this.
  • Everyone a Learner, Everyone a Teacher, Everyone a Leader: Thank you to the Grassroots Leadership College which operated in Madison, Wisconsin from 2003-2012 for this piece. It means simply what it says. Some of my best teachers have been people who wouldn’t fit the conventional definition of teacher or leader which leads to–
  • What is logical depends on the person’s experience in the world: This wisdom comes from Luke, who was one of my favorite 2 year old’s in the childcare center that I worked in back in 2002. He just taught me that what he did wasn’t illogical. It made perfect sense, if I looked at the world from his angle.
  • How does this move the work forward?: I used to hate this question when my boss, Maureen O’Connell, aka Mo, would ask it at every check in session during my years as a community organizer with Save Our Cumberland Mountains (SOCM), but nearly 30 years later it still echoes in my mind and heart keeping me from running in circles.
  • Gentle on self: No great source on this one, just something I find myself saying to myself sometimes.
  • If I can’t dance, I don’t want to be part of your revolution: Okay, so Emma Goldman probably never said those words exactly but maybe she said something like it and expressed the idea. It is a great idea and I totally agree.

That’s it. At least that’s it for the moment. These are things that are guiding me today. What guides you? What supports you in growing your happiness? Share your thoughts in the comments.

My Own Happiness Project for 2025

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I was struck by the idea of building on our happiness in such an intentional, step by step process and decided that with the new year coming it made sense to take it on myself. So, I got myself a wellness planner, started to think through my first areas of focus, and here I am getting started. I hope you’ll travel with me.

The Next Chapter

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It’s hard to believe that I’ve not written in eight months. I had no idea it had been that long. It’s one of those things that seems as if it was only yesterday and at the same time feels a lifetime ago.

I got home from my travels in Europe to a stint of being underemployed that changed my life once again. Some people stay with jobs they don’t believe in and that tear apart their souls so they can be assured of a steady paycheck. That might be the smart thing to do for a lot of people, but it’s never been something that I could face. I’ve left good paying jobs because the organizations I worked for did things that were, in my view, morally unjust. Some groups I found mistreated workers, discriminated against people, or were racist and homophopic. I couldn’t stay with them and stay with myself. Other jobs ended just because in the nonprofit world sometimes there’s no money left and without money organizations stop operating and jobs end. In the case of Solace Friends, the group I worked with before I left for Europe, it was just a situation where it became clear to me that the organization needed something that wasn’t me and the work was going to burn me out like a candle lit at both ends. It couldn’t continue without me risking more seizures and burnout. It wasn’t worth it. So, I leapt into the unknown. After the vacation to Europe that I’d booked months earler, I returned to Madison and to no idea what would happen next.

What happened was dozens more resumes sent to everyone and their uncle followed by many interviews. Meanwhile, I started to sub in the Madison Metropolitan School District, mostly at Lowell Elementary as a Special Education Aide. The thing about subbing as an SEA in 2023 in Wisconsin, and in many other places I’m sure, is that a person can sub every day if they want. Schools are desperate for people to fill so many roles. I was lucky enough to find a long term subbing position that allowed me to work in the same school and with the same kids for weeks. It was a challenge. I had my favorite runners, little ones who’d simply run out of the classroom when they didn’t want to take part in activities any more. I had the kids who just didn’t want to deal with some support staff person trying to get them to go take their medicine and who’d mastered the great skill of talking back about everything. Then there were the ones who didn’t talk at all, those who hadn’t learned to speak yet. The kids trying to exist in our public school system when they were still non-verbal and operating developmentally years behind their peers.

I’ve been an activist and an organizer for a long time, about three decades as a matter of fact. Working with these kids isn’t changing the world in the big ways that I used to aim for, but it is much the same. It is changing the world for each of them through being there, caring, and taking the time to sit with them and figure out things together, so that they might become the person who can advocate for themselves.

So, it was there, at Lowell Elementary, spending time hanging out with those kids defined as having “special needs” that I turned the page to start my next chapter. After putting quite a bit of thought, I decided on a midlife career switch. I left the nonprofit world and applied to work for the Madison Metropolitan School District as a Cross-Categorical Teacher (what many may know as a Special Education Teacher). I started teaching this Fall at Mendota Elementary with a provisional teaching license while going to school to get my permanent license. It’s hard. There’s no doubt about that, but I am happy to have made the change and look forward to the chapters ahead. More stories to come.