Tag: joy

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?

From Broken to Owning Happiness

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I think it was sometime early in college when I first got the label “borderline depression.” I wonder if there’s anything worse healthcare can do so simply and in such an offhand way for someone who’s dealing with feeling down than giving them labels like that? It took a long time to get over the labeling. Sometimes I still feel its hurt. The label told me I was broken and unfixable. It echoed what I was feeling at the time, that I was less than and unworthy.

There is much that I have to be thankful for that got me past that label western medicine dropped on me and brought me to this point where I own my happiness and can take on things like the happiness project that I’m doing this year. Back in my teens and twenties I went through some tough times when I could find no reason in myself to keep going. I had to look outside. I’m alive today because of my nieces and nephews. They were all kids back then. As someone who’d lost people in my life as a child, I knew how much it hurt. No matter how much living hurt for me then I couldn’t die because it would hurt them even more. I couldn’t do that to them. I say this because I know there are others out there who are going through what I went through then. When we’re hurting and can’t see the beauty and joy in ourselves sometimes it’s okay to let the beauty and joy of others be our safety net to support us as we rebuild and find our balance. It is good to recognize our interconnection. It’s good to remember that in hurting ourselves we hurt those who truly love us. In healing ourselves we bring joy to those who love us too.

I share my story too because it’s not over. People have good times and lousy times. Stress impacts us all and sometimes we get worn. In recent months I’ve been noticing that the combination of middle-age, a stressful career in special education in a high needs community, the political situation in the US, and the impacts of epilepsy and epilepsy treatment have all been wrapping me up and some days wearing me down.

I’m really appreciating my 2025 Happiness Project. I think it’s been key to keeping me going. I’ve noticed that I’m not angry as much. I calm quicker. I can empathize more often. I’ll be making some changes to it in April. Meditation and daily stretching seem to be becoming a regular habit that don’t need to be listed as goals anymore. I will keep doing at least 15 minutes of meditation and a few minutes of qi gong or other stretching daily, but will give myself space for some new goals. I will keep creative time as a goal. Right now I’m deciding if I might increase the amount of time I’ll commit daily. I started with 15 minutes daily, but often find myself doing more. I’ll also keep a goal of cutting out television at least two days a week.

I’ll add one or two new goals in April. I’m still deciding what those might be. Will I focus on getting out and connecting more? Maybe I should commit to singing every day? Would I like to commit to other writing projects, daily reading, or maybe something else? There are many ideas floating about. We’ll see what comes to fruition. In any case, I think I can be proud. I’ve come a long way from those days of not finding any joy in myself to seeing the many options for growing joy.

How are you growing your joy? You are worthy. Joy is there. What do you want to do to feed it and grow it and bring it to your life?

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.

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.