This week's post is a book review of "The Happiness Project" by Gretchen Rubin. I confess that I am a happiness junkie. I love a good one-liner, solid cliché or book on happiness. They either make me smile or shift my mood in a positive way. Happiness strategies help me cope with whatever life is lobbing at my head. At a minimum, they give me cause to pause.
Sometimes I wonder if my fixation on happiness oriented ideas is because I find it comforting to reduce life's complexities to a brief, eloquent or at least cheesy, phrase with a singular, laser-like focus on happiness. Sometimes I wonder if it is just because I need a distraction.
Regardless of my motives, the United Nations seems to think there is something scientific in the concept of happiness. March 20 has been the International Day of Happiness since 2013. This I did not know! The World Happiness Report was written by a group of independent experts conducting a study of happiness and ranked 157 countries in order from the happiest to the least happy. Guess which country ranked #1? Denmark. Where would one find Canada and the US in the list? Numbers 6 and 13 respectively.
Whatever the reason, my happiness obsession has led me to read a copious number of books on the subject and scan a ridiculous number of happiness-oriented websites. In this blog, I have 2 websites as well as a book you might find interesting. In later blogs I want to discuss more books and blogs. I would love to know about your take on a resource. So, email me if you want to talk about happiness books or websites. We can do a book review together.
So, here goes!
Websites that you can also like/follow on Facebook:
This Week's Book:
Sometimes I wonder if my fixation on happiness oriented ideas is because I find it comforting to reduce life's complexities to a brief, eloquent or at least cheesy, phrase with a singular, laser-like focus on happiness. Sometimes I wonder if it is just because I need a distraction.
Regardless of my motives, the United Nations seems to think there is something scientific in the concept of happiness. March 20 has been the International Day of Happiness since 2013. This I did not know! The World Happiness Report was written by a group of independent experts conducting a study of happiness and ranked 157 countries in order from the happiest to the least happy. Guess which country ranked #1? Denmark. Where would one find Canada and the US in the list? Numbers 6 and 13 respectively.
Whatever the reason, my happiness obsession has led me to read a copious number of books on the subject and scan a ridiculous number of happiness-oriented websites. In this blog, I have 2 websites as well as a book you might find interesting. In later blogs I want to discuss more books and blogs. I would love to know about your take on a resource. So, email me if you want to talk about happiness books or websites. We can do a book review together.
So, here goes!
Websites that you can also like/follow on Facebook:
- Upworthy at www.upworthy.com: This website covers a broad spectrum of issues: from saving animals from an otherwise hard life, to teaching kids about respect and resiliency. A good example is the post about how children in Venezuela responded to a the task of drawing a recent meal. The disparity is quickly evident. Another great post is how a marital arts instructor coaches a kid through an emotionally challenging exercise that brought the child to tears. The instructor reinforced the message that it is ok to cry sometimes. The net effect being that the child has a healthy respect for his own emotions. As you can tell, Upworthy tends to highlight social issues and even the seemingly bad is "worthy" of being "up." The website spreads its messages via short stories with links to videos where appropriate.
- Project Happiness at www.projecthappiness.com: This website walks you through some daily habits and you can gather people together for a Project Happiness Circle. I wouldn't mind giving the circle a try but the website makes me wonder if it is happiness version of Weight Watchers. So, I guess I am still percolating on whether I want to do it. In the meantime, they have themed blogs such as August's Awegust Challenge as well as daily affirmation-type posts. Depending on your mood when you see the posts, you might take them as cheesy or profound. The emotional response is highly individual.
This Week's Book:
Gretchen Rubin wrote The Happiness Project and, where she is a former lawyer, I suspected her writing would be rather legalistic. It is not. Instead it is an easy read for anyone.
She divides the book into months of the year. Each month has a theme. For example, February is "Remember Love" month. Shocker.
In one of the exercises it is suggested that you be incredibly kind to someone you love. I practiced this incredible kindness technique on my husband and he became suspicious. "Have I been diagnosed with something?" "Are you over-compensating for a gap in our relationship?" I freaked him out so bad that I had to confess I was conducting a happiness experiment on him. AWKWARD!
Still, the monthly themes are fun and since it has been a few years since I originally read the book, I am up for a re-read. It is one of those books you can read, give a shot at implementing some of the ideas and re-read years later for a refresher.
My favorite idea from the book is that we are happy when we are growing. True dat!
No single coping technique will take all the pain away.
Try anyway.
Maggie
She divides the book into months of the year. Each month has a theme. For example, February is "Remember Love" month. Shocker.
In one of the exercises it is suggested that you be incredibly kind to someone you love. I practiced this incredible kindness technique on my husband and he became suspicious. "Have I been diagnosed with something?" "Are you over-compensating for a gap in our relationship?" I freaked him out so bad that I had to confess I was conducting a happiness experiment on him. AWKWARD!
Still, the monthly themes are fun and since it has been a few years since I originally read the book, I am up for a re-read. It is one of those books you can read, give a shot at implementing some of the ideas and re-read years later for a refresher.
My favorite idea from the book is that we are happy when we are growing. True dat!
No single coping technique will take all the pain away.
Try anyway.
Maggie
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