Last night I finished up The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin. In it she chornicles the year she spent trying to learn how to be a happier person. It is a very interesting idea: To learn to be happy or to try to improve on the happiness one already feels. No lie; this book made me think. A LOT!
From the back cover:
Gretchen Rubin had an epiphany one rainy afternoon in the unlikeliest of places; a city bus. ”The days are long, but the years are short” she realized. Time is passing, and I’m not focusing enough on the things that really matter.” In that moment, she decided to dedicate a year to her happiness project.
In this lively and compelling account, Rubin chronicles her adventures during the twelve months she spent test-driving the wisdom of the ages, current scientific research, and the lessons from popular culture about how to be happier. Among other things, she found that novelty and challenge are powerful sources of happiness; that money can help buy happiness, when spent wisely; that outer order contributes to inner calm; and that the very smallest of changes can make the biggest difference.
For more information on her project, ideas to help you everyday, and how you can start your own project, click here.
Over all it gets a 5/5 from me. It is a book I will read again and one full of ideas which I think would be good for me to give a try.
I am sure it is not surprising to learn my reading a book about another woman’s quest to improve her own happiness lead me to question my own. What may be a surprise is my answer.
Sadly, I’ve come to the conclusion that I am currently not very happy. On most levels I should be. I have a home to live in, food to eat, relatively good health, healthy children, an amazing husband whom I love deeply, family and friends who love me….. but for some reason, the joy of these things has been lost somewhere. I feel like a horribly selfish person for looking at my life and all I have and be dissatisfied – for wanting something different – for wanting something more….
I don’t exactly know how to explain it except to say that something is missing. The magic that allowed the littlest things in life to bring me true joy has been replaced by a darkness which I cannot push away. I feel lost and lonely and afraid. I want to find my purpose and pursue it. I am very clear that I am not moving through life with purpose – walking the path I am meant to walk. It’s difficult spending most days knowing I am somewhere I don’t belong and yet trying to stay on the path because I know it is expected of me – because it is what others think is the right path for me.
What is the right path? How do I find it? Why cannot finding my happiness be as easy as it once was – or at least as it seemed to be…Perhaps I should start a Happiness Project of my own? Right now though, it seems too daunting.
Book 3 of 1000
Pages: 292
Pages read to date: 852
