“The Happiness Project: Or, Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun”

I’m reading a book called “The Happiness Project” and it’s about Gretchen Rubin’s Happiness Project. She begins at the beginning of the year and tackles a few different areas of her life every month, adding on to the months before, so by December, she will have become a happier person. At the beginning, she makes 12 Commandments that simply states all of the things she want to become or be better at. In January she wants to boost her energy. She decides that to do this, she has to

• Go to sleep earlier
• Exercise better
• Toss, restore, organize
• Tackle a nagging task
• Act more energetic

In order to go to sleep earlier, she blocked all sources of light. She also practiced deep breathing and wrote down her thoughts if her mind was racing. To exercise better also helped with the sleeping issue. Gretchen tried to walk everyday and even took up a strength class which helped her exercise better. She also spent a lot of time going through her closets and house trying to declutter because when things have a place to go and everything is in their place, it make us happy. She also came up with the “one minute rule” where if something takes one minute or less to do, just do it before it creates an even bigger task. She found that when she acted more positive, as a result, she was happier.

Reading this book made me feel more positive because I feel like wanting to be happy is the easy part. Actually becoming happy is harder, but breaking things up and doing a little at a time is easier than trying to do it all at once. “The Happiness Project” is a great self-help book and I think that reading it will make you happier and thus make everyone around you happier.

Radiate positive vibes and don’t forget to smile! ❤

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