Tag: happiness guides

2026- A New Response to the Happiness Project

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Last January, I leapt in to my New Year’s resolutions with vigor and excitement, focused on four areas- creativity, spirit, health, and connection. I had just read Gretchin Rubin’s book, “The Happiness Project” and decided to take on my own happiness project. I was excited to see where the project would take me and who I would become.

This time around I’m walking into the new year both tired and comfortable, but still with a fire that burns like the end of an incense stick. It’s small, but glowing, smoking, filling the whole room with a joyful, warm scent making the space come alive. I’m worn from the year at work. Special education is one of the toughest careers I’ve taken on in a life of many changes. I left school this year for winter break only to get hit by the flu. Between being sick and just being wiped out from teaching, most of my break was spent either sleeping or just laying low in my apartment trying to regain my energy.

I still love that idea of the Happiness Project. I gained a lot from it over the past year, building my meditation practice, reminding myself of the importance of balance, encouraging myself to pull out my art supplies, and learning that when fun becomes work it often fails to be fun anymore.

This year is special because it is the year that I am as old as my mother ever was. If I am lucky enough to keep on keeping on, I will have seen more years than she ever did. That seems so strange to me. She was so much older and wiser than I could ever dream to be, yet here I am. It seems something to celebrate and reflect on as it is both beautiful and confusing.

So, what do this year’s resolutions look like? How do I grow in gratitude and happiness? How do I come to know the woman who raised me and honor her existance?

I expect that a lot will continue from this past year. I’ll keep building my meditation practice. I’ll keep encouraging myself to delve deeper into my arts. This year I’ll be working on my children’s book “The Magic Blanket,” a story of my mother’s passing. It will be my first book and, with luck, maybe not my last. I’ll keep seeking balance in life, finding those ways to get out and play, not allowing myself to get to caught in my work life, and continuing to honor the life I’ve been given with good food, exercise, play, song, and celebration.

It doesn’t have the same structure and I won’t be tracking my progress in a detailed, daily way, but it’s written now so I have a place to come back to, to see if I’m doing what I’ve wanted to and to hold myself accountable. What are you seeking in the year coming?

The Happiness Project: One Year Later

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It was in November of 2024 that I first came across Gretchin Rubin’s book, “The Happiness Project” and decided to take on my own happiness project.

Last January I leapt in, focused on four areas- creativity, spirit, health, and connection. I went online and bought a planner to help me track the process and think through my direction. I set clear, measurable goals, and jumped. I started out with 15 minutes a day of creative time, 15 minutes daily of meditation, and 15 minutes daily of stretching/opening exercises. I started strong. By April these things began to feel like habits and I sought more. I added in time to make music, get outside, and to read for pleasure. As spring warmed I took that idea of getting outside and started running again. By mid-summer I was running about 10 miles a week and really loving it along with building my community connections through volunteering at the zoo and the MSCR pontoon boats.

Each of things was something that I enjoyed, but by August I learned there was something I didn’t like anymore. I didn’t like my planner or being committed to doing all of the things that I’d added to my list. While I loved to play with art supplies, I didn’t like having to make sure I did my 15 minutes a day of creative time. The same was true for meditation or music or anything else. I’d somehow taken so many things that were so fun and relaxing and made them into jobs that I had to do or I’d have failed. That wasn’t what I sought to do. How had I taken this stress reduction exercise and turned it into a stressor? It collapsed and I collapsed.

As school started again I got lost in the new year, preparing for all my students and trying my best to stay afloat amongst the growing icebergs of work that are the life of a special education teacher. The best I could do in the moment it seemed was to let go of the structure of my “Happiness Project.” I had to let myself not create, not meditate, not make music, not run, not play outside. It seems a strange way to approach it I suppose, but it worked. I decided for myself, unknowingly I’ll admit, that the project was no longer a job for me and I didn’t have to do it.

It took some time where I didn’t meditate or run or create or do much of anything that I’d set out to do in the beginning of the year, but after a month or two pieces started to drift back in. I meditate daily now. My creative time has been knitting almost daily. I started running again in the fall and did a 5k. I’m cutting my tv time and increasing my time reading fiction. The one thing that I’ve not returned to though has been my planner. I have learned that while happiness is intentional it can’t be overplanned or it becomes work.

Three Months In, What Have I Learned?

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I read Gretchin Rubin’s bood “The Happiness Project” last fall and it inspired me to start my own happiness project in 2025. As we move into spring, I’m proud to say that its still going strong.

In January, I started the project by dedicating 15 minutes a day to creative time, 15 minutes to meditation, and 15 minutes to stretching using Qi Gong, yoga, or other similar exercises to open mind, body, and spirit. What I’ve learned is that it’s okay to sometimes skip a day to not let these gifts become a chore. It’s important that each is seen as a gift and celebration in and of my life in order for me to stay committed and keep growing with them. Now, after just over three months I feel steady starting each day with my meditation time and ending each day with creative time and a brief stretch before settling into bed. These tools have become something to look forward to. I feel my body opening up and have seen that I’m calmer and slower to grow frustrated with the stressors in my life. It’s easier to work each day at school with those kids who are struggling in so many ways. I am really thankful for settling into these habits in this time of societal upset. I think they’re a big part of keeping my balance.

In February, I added a new goal. I decided I’d been watching too much tv so I opted for two days a week without any. Some weeks I succeeded and some I didn’t. What I learned though was that operating from a perspective of denial made me grumpy with myself and I didn’t like it. I found myself questioning- why am I doing this? It wasn’t something I could look forward to.

As we move into April, my goals are changing. I’ve decided that meditation, stretching, and creative time are settling in as habits. I can move forward with these. Denying myself tv time on its own just doesn’t feel good, so I’m letting it go though I expect that my new goals may just help me cut my tv time from a more positive perspective. I’ve opted to add in three new goals. For the next three months or so, I’ll be working on getting out to spend additional time playing outside in natural areas hiking, boating, biking or otherwise just being at least twice a month, making music at least two ours a week, and reading for pleasure at least 15 minutes a day.

So far my new goals have been going great. Walking along Lake Mendota with my dog yesterday was fantastic. I love the water! Revisiting the “Chronicles of Narnia” which I read in my youth has been lots of fun as has listening to “The Hobbit” which perhaps surprisingly I’ve never read before though I saw the movie. My dog has handled me getting out my old flute very well and getting together with friends for a weekly singing circle always brings a smile to my face.

It all reminds me how important balance is. I know I am a person who so easily gets sucked up by my work and needs to be intentional. Happiness 2025 is really helping.

What are you doing to find and maintain your joy?

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.