I've been working on my
happiness project
for just over three months now.
I think it's time to
evaluate--
to take my "happy" temperature!
Looking for something good
to write about
every single day
can be quite daunting.
And life-changing.
And fun.
5 things I've learned so far
- I'm taking more time to notice the world around me. There is so much beauty in nature, but I'm usually moving at too fast a pace to see. Knowing I have to come up with something good every day helps me enjoy the small things that are actually so huge--like a sunrise, or a thunderstorm, or a flower.
. - I'm paying more attention to people--from a fly-on-the-wall perspective. I notice kindness and quiet goodness in ways I hadn't before. I see ways that people express love--tender looks on faces and gentle gestures--things that are so natural for people they don't even know they do them.
. - The most poignant lessons in looking for good come in the thick of not-so-good experiences. There is something so true about the saying, "you have to know the bitter to know the sweet." Some of the sweetest lessons I've learned have come as I've looked for the good at times when I thought there was none.
. - I am learning that I can find something good in everything.
. - And I am learning that looking for things to be happy about helps me be grateful, and optimistic, and hopeful. It's all in the way you look at life, isn't it?
.
I'd love to hear from you!
What makes you happy?Do you think of yourself
as an optimist?
How has looking for good
changed your life?
.
.
** A Galileo thermometer is a thermometer made of a sealed glass cylinder containing a clear liquid and several objects whose densities make them they rise or fall as the temperature changes. It's a perfect visual description of my "happy" thermometer!
