Last year I set a New Years resolution about happiness. I committed to myself that I was going to focus on daily happiness for 365 days. When I started on January 1st, I really had no idea how I was going to do that. How the year evolved turned out to be quite interesting.
On January 1st I started a journal and committed to writing in it every night. I started the exercise with rating my happiness in several aspects of my life–things like family, work, health, and money, to name a few. I gave each category a score out of 10 and for every category that wasn’t a 10/10 I would write down actions that could be taken to make it a 10/10.
This carried on for a month or two and then my journal entries started to change all by themselves–focusing less on changing the things I was unhappy about and more celebrating all the things that I was happy about. By the end of the 3rd quarter the entries were just about being grateful in general for everything in my life. What was interesting that even on my most crabby, cold and PMS-y days, when I would go to bed and write down at least three things I was grateful for that day, I would get a complete state change, going to bed happier and more contented.
The more I was focused on being grateful, the happier I got, the more connected I felt to others, and the more fun I had. 2013 turned out to be a BLAST!!!
The 28 Days of Gratitude Challenge
This winter has been a hard one to be happy in. The February “blues” are going to be in full swing this year so we’ve decided to embark on a 28-day challenge that might just help. Here’s what the team at StoneTree is going to do.
Starting Feb 1, we’ll write down each day at least three things we are grateful for on that day. It can be in the morning, before bed, with lunch–it doesn’t matter, as long as it happens everyday. That’s it!
We’d love you to join us! We challenge you be grateful, in writing, every day. Don’t forget to rate your happiness from 1-10 in all of these areas the day you start:
1. Self
2. Work
3. Relationship/Marriage
4. Family/Kids
5. Finances
6. Health
7. Friends/Community/Social
8. Overall
Put you scores away for 28 days where you won’t see them, and then rank yourself again at the end of the challenge. Let us know how you did and if they changed.
Happy February everyone!!
Last year we showcased a little allergy remedy in the “Things We Love Section” of our newsletter. Lufeel is a very safe and very effective homeopathic remedy for seasonal allergies and hayfever that came in a tablet format and a nasal spray. This year, the maker of that remedy is no longer distributing in Canada, so we had a bit of a hole to fill.
