Happiness Can Be a Habit

One year ago this week, we moved from Albuquerque, New Mexico to Boulder, Colorado so my husband could pursue his dream job.  The job has been everything he imagined, and he could not be happier at work.  Also just as expected, it has also been difficult for me, a complete homebody, to meet people and find a community as a stay at home mom. 

I have recently started a local happiness project group based on the work of Gretchen Rubin, author of the book and blog, The Happiness Project.  As part of this group, I will read and explore happiness research (I LOVE that organizations spend money to research this!), and fit it into my life to explore what makes a difference and what doesn't.  I will be trying new things, creating good habits, overriding bad habits, and leaving my comfort zone.  Most importantly, I have already started increasing my happiness by organizing the local group.  I was nervous I would (will!) do something wrong, or no one would show up or be interested, but I did it.  One month later, I have already met some great people who are happy I got the ball rolling.  In fact, now that I've done one proactive thing, it is affecting my day-to-day motivation in many ways- now that I see good things happening, I'm willing to work harder in more ways.



Today, I got out the umbrella clothesline that I used for our diapers back in Albuquerque.  I remembered how much I enjoyed a few minutes in the sun, sunscreen free as I build vitamin D.  I love hanging diapers to dry for sun disinfection and stain removal, and because the dryer uses so much energy and wears down the diaper materials.  Simply putting the diapers on the line makes me happy because I an consciously reminded of these things.  However, I had not seriously considered doing this for the past YEAR.  What was I thinking?  One arm of the clothesline was damaged shortly before the move.  The plastic line might be all tangled.  Once untangled, the lines probably need to be tightened.  There might not be a good place in the yard to set it up (we use a large diameter umbrella base instead of cementing the pole in the ground).  After a year of thinking all those negative things, I went outside on this beautiful holiday morning, and I set up the line in less than 15 minutes.  It was really quite easy.  It was simple enough that I am now curious if I could go a week without using the dryer (while still getting laundry done, of course!).

Are you avoiding something you enjoy doing that is good for yourself and your family?  Do you have habits that keep you doing things you'd rather not?  Please share!