Happiness 101

"The foolish man seeks happiness in the distance; the wise grows it under his feet." ~James Oppenheim

Even though I recognize my life is good - I have a wonderful husband, great kids, we all are relatively healthy, we're financially stable - I sometimes, for whatever reason, still struggle with being HAPPY all the time. Finding the joy, if you know what I mean. So when I was at the library a few weeks back and saw the book HAPPINESS 101 on the shelf, it just kind of seemed to call my name. It's written by an everyday Joe (I believe he's an accountant), and he just says some things in there that really made me think. They would probably seem elementary to you all (duh, Jen!!), but to me they were profound.

The one that just stuck in my mind was 'Determine what activities make you personally happy and make them the center of your life.'

So in that spirit, I am making a list of those activites, more than anything, to remind myself where I want to be focusing my time and energy:

• Spending time with Dana - talking, on a date, planning for the future - whatever!
• Time with my kids - especially one on one time.
• Attending the kids' sporting events as a family (I found myself complaining about it this spring, when actually it's something I really like doing!)
• Listening to great music
• Exercising
• Having a clean house (I don't love to clean, per se, but I am happier when my house IS clean, so................I guess I know what I need to do about that - darn it!)
• Studying the scriptures and meditating (again - I have it on that list of 'things to do' as if it's a burden, but I actually enjoy it!)
• Creating (quilting, scrapbooking, photography, writing - I just love the whole process of knowing that I created something new)
• Travel
• Attending the temple
• Reading good books
• Really connecting with friends/family

It has been interesting for me to just view things in a different way (i.e. "We get to go as a family to Alden's flag football game tonight" instead of "We have to.........").

Life is good! Hope you're happy!