Happy Project

DianaK

Happy Project – Day 2: Snappy starts

Did you know that just a few minutes of bad news in the morning can set you up for a negative day… even 6-8 hours later?

Here’s a happiness experiment from Michelle Gielan and Shawn Achor that I’ve been working on incorporating into my days:Start out any conversation you have today by sharing something positive and meaningful.

So far I’m really enjoying the results of answering “How are you?” with something positive — as opposed to my usual “I’m okay – tired – overwhelmed – frustrated (or whatever version of that I might come up with).” These conversations have been WAY more fun. 😀

Have you tried this? I’d love to hear about your experiences!

DianaK

Happy Project!

I’ve been working on a way to share ideas and research about positive psychology in a way that feels helpful, accessible, and doable. For now, I’m going to post exercises here and on Facebook. I’m calling it The Happy Project!

Here’s today’s idea for increasing your happiness right now. If you decide to try it out and are willing to share your experience with me, I’d love to hear about it!

Eventually the exercises I post will be part of my book and I am interested in feedback about the wording of the exercise (does it make sense? is it accessible? does it trigger anything negative?) and the effect of both reading the exercise and of doing it.

Happy Project Day 1
What is one of your favorite colors? Think about or write down some things that color that fill you with happiness.

One of my favorite colors is blue. Some blue things that fill me with happiness are my kids’ eyes, Lake Superior, my car, morning glories, a favorite old flannel shirt, a relatively new bath towel, shadows, my drinking glasses, the sky at night, and blueberries.

Bonus happy: Create a physical reminder of that color and/or happiness. Screen saver, collage of photos, drawing, sticky note, poem, frame a handwritten or printed list of the happy-inducing color things.

happy-blue

I made a new Facebook cover photo for myself!