Happiness « Good Karma Housekeeping

Category Archives: Happiness

Aug 13 2009

Capture Memories, One Sentence at a Time

by Holly

I have a thing for remembering dates and events, big or small. Some people take oodles of photos, piece together artsy scrapbooks, or maintain detailed journals. I, however, store most of my memories on a little mental calendar in the deep recesses of my brain.

I like it that way. Memories are my absolute favorite souveniers. But I’m getting older and I can admit that my once-photographic memory occasionally goes on the fritz. So, I’m thinking it’s time to do something about it. Enter Gretchen Rubin’s Happiness Project and her ideas for keeping a non-journal. Or, as I prefer to call it, a memory calendar.

The concept is about as low-pressure and easy to maintain as they get. Not to mention, it takes up practically no space. Simply:

Buy a datebook with the month and day (no year) printed at the top of each page. (Or create your own using a nice notebook. Just make sure it has enough pages!)
Write a one-sentence entry for each day that has an event or memory that you’d like to hold on to over the years.
Keep adding to it until the book is full.
Repeat.

Just one sentence. That’s all it takes to serve as a rich memory jogger. A few words that can transport you back on a multisensory journey to that table for two on your first date ten years ago. From his adorable smile to his expressive eyes to his chatty personality. All as vivid as if it took place yesterday. All still true today.

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© 2009 Good Karma Housekeeping. Making the space–mentally and physically–to live happily ever after. Even more happily ever after than Shrek and Fiona. (Image courtesy of Y0si via Creative Commons.)

Categories: Good Ideas, Happiness | No Comments »

Jul 6 2009

A Permanent Vacation

by Holly

A glass of dessert wine out on the patio at dusk

Today is the first official day of my staycation, and I’m wrapping up the day with a glass of muscat that has been sitting in my wine rack for far too long. After all, I’m on vacation–so why not celebrate a little, right? It has been a long, leisurely day, complete with a yoga class, stroll through Boston’s Public Garden, an iced Americano, a visit to a local day spa, lunch & dinner on my patio, and now a glass of dessert wine. [Edit: Add in a cup of vanilla soft serve with rainbow sprinkles.]

All that leisurely goodness has got me thinking: What if every day could be a vacation day? Would it lose its specialness? Shouldn’t every day be special? Instead, we (read: I) seemingly trudge through our days. It’s almost Friday. It’s almost 5 o’clock. Blech. Enough.

So, what is it that I love most about vacations?

The anticipation of all that lies ahead
New sights, sounds, and experiences
Good food
Good company
Traveling lightly (i.e., having occasions to wear all of my shoes)

While I may not be able to hang out in Sonoma, attend yoga camp, or dine at Henrietta’s Table every day, I can certainly cultivate that same feeling of pure enjoyment, of having everything I want–and everything I need. While my everyday life may not be packed with as many leisurely activities as today, with a little extra awareness and a shift in perspective, even the seemngly mundane can be fabulous.

A former yoga teacher of mine lives by a similar philosophy where every day and every thing is The Best. The best sunset ever. The best strawberry ever. The best roll of paper towels ever. Truthfully, we all know that not everything can be that rosy all the time, but just putting your mind in glass-completely-full perspective is 90% of the battle. Absorbtion comes with time–and practice.

Wouldn’t you like to go on a permanent vacation?

You can! You know that fancy bar of soap in your linen closet? Unwrap it, set it out next to the sink in a pretty little dish, and enjoy its triple-milled bubbles and French lavender aroma. Burn that decorative candle. Wear that fancy perfume or pair of earings. Take lots of photos. Sit on a park bench and soak in the sights. Savor dessert. Uncork that old bottle of dessert wine.

What are you waiting for?

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© 2009 Good Karma Housekeeping. Because less really is more.

Categories: Happiness | 1 Comment »

Jun 30 2009

Plenty Is a Mindset

by Holly

into the wild - alone

We live in a culture of wants. It’s no secret. Everywhere you look, you see covetable stuff. Shiny stuff. Pretty stuff. Fancy stuff. Cool stuff. I admit, I like stuff; however, I am also overwhelmed by it all.

The first thing I vividly remember wanting–with every pleading fiber of my nine-year-old self–was a pair of Nike sneakers. Ones with a lavender swoosh, like Amy Gardner’s. I also wanted a baseball tee shirt with a silk-screened unicorn on the front and my name in fuzzy letters on the back. And a Cabbage Patch Kid (and another Cabbage Patch Kid). And let’s not forget the Hello Kitty erasers and scratch-and-sniff stickers. I got all of those things, and pretty much everything else I’ve wanted for over the years.

Whoop de doo.

Want is an insatiably hungry beast. It took me a good, long time to realize all that stuff just gets in the way of truly living. My happiness has little to do with designer handbags or $200 jeans or a yoga wardrobe full of Lululemon gear. I am more than the sum of my possessions–and you are, too.

Last weekend I watched Into the Wild, and the message has been haunting me ever since: stuff does not equal happiness. As circumstance would have it, I’ve been a student of this philosophy for the last six months. While I would give anything not to be in this situation, it is perhaps the most valuable lesson I’ve ever learned, distinguishing want vs. need.

“Until you have it all you won’t be free.”
– “Society” by Eddie Vedder

In order to experience that sense of freedom, you have to come to terms with the fact that you already have everything you need. Trust. Dig deep. Look in the way back of your closet. I promise, whatever you’re looking for is there–as long as you’re willing to be creative.

Can you cultivate your own definition of happiness–of “having it all”–with only the resources at your fingertips? Life is short. Time is passing. You can’t afford to wait.

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© 2009 Good Karma Housekeeping. Because less really is more.

Categories: Happiness, Quotations | 5 Comments »

Jun 3 2009

A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Acceptance

by Holly

LITTOF

My friend Jami recently brought my attention to this blog: Love in the Time of Foreclosure. It’s the open-book documentation of a husband and wife out in California who are staring into the eyes of foreclosure and figuring out how to get by on so, so, so much less than before. Heartbreaking, huh? But here’s the kicker: they’re happier than ever before.

Like one of my favorite (mostly nonfiction) books from the 1990s, Dave Eggers‘ A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, the author of LITTOF is moving ahead and only looking forward. There’s not a lot for any of us to gain by playing the What If game, is there?

So, how in the the face of such adversity do you find happily ever after? Well, for starters, you change the way you define your own happiness. ASAP. A few months back, I scribbled down this quote from an interview with Michael J. Fox, who said:

“Happiness grows in direct proportion to your acceptance and inverse proportion to your expectations. This is what I have today . . . I don’t have a choice about this, but I have a million other choices. And if I choose well, I’m going to be a happy person.”

Fox recently authored a book of his own, Always Looking Up: The Adventures of an Incurable Optimist, which is all about his way of viewing challenges as opportunities. Look up or lose out, I say. Give up fighting, but don’t give up on the fight.

Accept. Surrender. Make lemonade. Whatever you want to call it. Just don’t call it a loss. Maybe its just the beleaguered breadwinner in me talking, but adversity is one heck of an influential teacher, don’t you think. (Though, for the record, I think I’m ready to graduate . . .)

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© 2009 Good Karma Housekeeping. Because less really is more. (photo © Stephanie Walker)

Related posts:
Plenty Is a Mindset
The Haves and the Have Nots

Categories: Happiness, Quotations | 2 Comments »

May 18 2009

My Happy Birthday Mantra

by Holly

My happy birthday mantra, scribbled onto my tea cup so I wouldn't forget it.

Today is my birthday–my 35th birthday. And while I so easily could have fallen into the this is the year I’ll lose those 10 pounds, or drink my greens, or query the editor of this or that magazine, or dabble with retinols game of cat-and-mouse that I like to play with myself, I decided not to go that route. At least not decidedly so. I kept it simple. Instead, I took the day off from work and hit up a morning yoga class at Exhale with one of my new favorite teachers, Taryn Toomey. Breathing seemed like the right thing to aspire to.

And breathe we did.

In order to help us harness our focus this chilly and gray Monday morning, she had us incorporate a mantra into our flow–a sequence of phrases repeated over and over in our head, with each inhale and each exhale. A meditation in motion. The point being that, with repetition, our thoughts will become our reality and we can create our own positive state of happiness and well-being. A pretty good gift to myself, if I do say so.

Taryn started us out with her mantra, and then encouraged us to let it morph into whatever shape naturally occurred. Over the next 75 minutes, I fell in love with these words. So much so that I jotted them down on the only paper I had–my cup of tea–and brought it home with me.

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© 2009 Good Karma Housekeeping. Making the space–both mentally and physically–to live happily ever after.

Categories: Happiness | No Comments »

Capture Memories, One Sentence at a Time

A Permanent Vacation

Plenty Is a Mindset

A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Acceptance

My Happy Birthday Mantra

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