Do You Know What Makes You Happy?
02_16_2020
Do You Know What Makes You Happy?
On Valentine’s Day, I was reading a series of entries in Sarah Ban Breathnach’s book, Simple Abundance: 365 Days to a Balanced and Joyful Life. Perhaps it was seeing the symbolic red hearts everywhere that primed me to resonate with the title question – How Happy Are You Right Now? – of one her daily essay entries.
The essay focused on the relationship that exists between one’s knowledge of what makes one happy and the daily experience of registering whether we are happy. Her statement on this relationship seems so obvious, and maybe that’s why so many of us miss its significance. What’s missing from many of our days is a true sense that we are enjoying the lives we are living. It is difficult to experience moments of happiness if we are not aware of what it is we genuinely love.
Several essays later, Breathnach calls us all to keep a daily Gratitude Journal as a way of beginning to note what we are grateful for each day. She convinced me of the role this could play in making me more cognizant of what makes me happy. I’ve bought a simple lined journal, made a label denoting its purpose, and baptized the journal with a purpose. To honor my start date, the label is decorated with bright, shiny red hearts.
I’ve attempted in the past to note what I’m grateful for each day, but I never dated each writing, nor did I keep my lists all in one place. Keeping a journal of reasons why I am grateful raises the process to a new level. At the end of each month, I hope to reread that month’s entry. The only guidelines I’ve set for myself include: a) making a daily entry; and, b) not using the same item within the same 30-day period.
The second guideline arose from my tendency to list the same things over and over. I realized by doing that I am missing so much of what makes me happy. Some of my current entries include my taking the time to just notice a moment of awareness in which I am taking pleasure from something I’m experience. It is amazing how our minds and hearts cooperate on a project like this. I noticed this morning how much pleasure I take just glancing out a window from one of my upstairs windows, checking how the trees made out in the windstorm that rattled the windows during the night.
I still have a spotlight on the wreathe hanging from the top of my garage, a view I can take in from my kitchen window. The simple beauty calls forth so many pleasant images I associate with the Christmas holidays.
I made one of my many trips to the library on Valentine’s day, and because I’m there so often, most of the librarians know me. If they are not busy, sometimes we chat about the books we are each reading. I felt very honored one day as I approached the check-out counter and heard two librarians talking as I approached, and one of them said, “Let’s ask Cathy if she has read this book and what she thinks about it.”
After I finished my transactions on Valentine’s day, the librarian on duty handed me a chocolate heart wrapped in bright red foil, thanking me for being such an avid reader and nice patron. This transaction – noted in my gratitude journal – as being grateful for having so many nice people in my life.
Just from the short time I have been writing in my new journal, I can see how just noting these small but not insignificant events can help me realize what helps make me happy. I am looking forward to reaching four weeks of entries and then looking back to reflect on what I can learn from my entries. I’m thinking that I might have a reflection section at the end of each month. Naming these elements more clearly will only help to make more aware of these treasured moments each day.
Here’s another gem from the author’s entry on January 10th. Happiness that the world cannot take away only flourishes in the secret garden of our souls. By tending to our inner garden and uprooting the weeds of our external expectations, we can nurture our authentic happiness in the way we would nurture something that’s fragile, beautiful, and alive. Happiness is a living emotion.
I’ll share the impact of this endeavor in one of my Blogs next month. I think it will be a fun and easy thing to keep up with. My journal is brightly covered, well-marked, has a pen attached to it, and I can carry it with me up to bed in the event I’m waiting to the end of the day to make an entry. If something hits me in the middle of the day, and I’m not at home, I just email myself a note or enter the insight into Notes on my phone so I don’t forget the thought.
Noting what gives me pleasure and makes me happy each day is such a simple way to increase my overall happiness. We have such abundance in our lives in this country that it is so easy to take our many blessings for granted.
I wish you Good Awakenings!
