This Reader's Review: Part XIX: "The Happiness Project"

I hadn't read a new book in about a week. I was searching for something new to jump in to. I was in desperate need to find something new to read. This was the perfect book for me. The book is "The Happiness Project" by Gretchen Rubin. Happiness is something I've struggled with for the last year. In short, I couldn't find my way back to happy. I started this year off with one simple thought: be happy. To me, that meant thinking happy thoughts to change my outlook, even when I didn't feel happy. So, in a way, I was already exploring my own happiness project when I discovered this gem via my friend Joseph's Tumblr page. I had so many "a-ha" moments while reading. I love when a book makes me rethink things. There are things I have been doing all wrong. I learned so much from this book. I think everyone would learn a lot from Rubin's book. 

"Love is a funny thing." -- Gretchen Rubin

"Nietzsche wrote, "All truly great thoughts are conceived while walking," 

Do I believe it possible to make myself happy? Yes. I can honestly say that this book made me re-evaluate the way I approach the idea of happiness. By the time I reached the end of chapter one, I knew that this was a book I needed to read. It's funny the way things just fall into your lap right at the precise moment. The more I read Rubin's account of her journey to happiness, the more I saw myself in her words. Like Rubin, I too feel that I can be happier, that I'm supposed to be happier. I was already on the right word with my thinking positive motivation. By the time, I got to the end of this book, I felt happier. I felt like I had found another purpose for this year in my life. I wrote the areas in my life that needed to be happier and thoughts on how to achieve them. is happiness for me may not be for anyone else. But, I am the only person who can define what my idea of happiness truly is. I'm excited about it. This was a great read. I 100% recommend it to any and everyone. Get into Grtchen Rubin's "The Happiness Project" and her one sentence journal.  

"To be happy, I need to think about feeling good, feeling bad, and feeling right." -- Gretchen Rubin

"It's a secret of Adulthood: Do good, feel good." -- Gretchen Rubin 

I Choose Me

I started the year with a distinct promise to myself. This year would be about becoming a better version of myself. I knew that this would take a bunch of little steps to fulfill the bigger promise. Things like my gratitude jar, which I love. I write down one good thing at the end of the night. It makes me smile when writing it. Also, I decided to be happy or at least act happy. I've spent entirely too much time last year being unhappy because of the actions of other people. Every day I wake up with that thought "Be Happy." It is absolutely true what Gretchen Rubin writes in "The Happiness Project," Look for happiness under your own roof” & “Happiness is the meaning and purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence.”  

Things that would normally bother me, don't anymore. I have truly given myself over to this new way of thinking and being. I can no longer carry unhappiness around with me like an accessory. Bad things happen. More often than not, to good people. But, for as long as I am on this Earth, I have the chance to change my circumstances. I messed up before. I put the keys to my happiness in the hands of another. That was the wrong move. Because it gave that person the power to break me and they did. I became a woman I didn't know last year. I was angry and hurt and upset and sullen. I do not have time for that woman anymore. She no longer exists. 

Thinking happy thoughts has truly changed my outlook. I'm not saying that I won't stumble because I will. I had a day this week where I could not muster a happy thought. So, I allowed myself to feel what I was feeling. I gave myself the day and then I was over it. I am fully aware of everything in my life. I know the good and bad. I do not sugarcoat anything. I think that there has to be more in store for me, for my life. I'm more determined than every to find out what it is. My happy thought for today is a simple one: "the weather is warming up, I'm out of the house and life is good. I am thankful for today." For me, these are the thoughts that get me through my day. What more can I ask for? Happiness, is indeed, a choice. I choose to be happy everyday. So should you.