The Happiness Project

So, today I started reading "The Happiness Project" by Gretchen Rubin.  I've seen stuff about this book & recently read a review of it from Julie, who writes on of my favorite healthy living blogs, www.pbfingers.com.  (You should definitely check her out.  She writes about her daily quest for health, quality work outs, and some of life's little adventures with her husband and adorable dog).  Julie talked about her views of the book and talked about Gretchen's ideas for obtaining "happiness."  I was intrigued, and as someone who is always trying to better myself, I thought I'd give the book a chance.

Her book has twelve main chapters, each describing a goal/mindset of her's for a particular month, and then a the end of the book, she gives pointers on how to start your OWN happiness project. I just finished the intro of the book, where Gretchen talks about the epiphany she had one day during her commute: "I was in danger of wasting my life." She went on to say that by no means did she have a BAD life; she had plenty to be happy about, but frequently, she just lived her life in a ritualistic manner, without really realizing she was actually living life.

Now, I have thought about that same thing many times over the past few months...apparently unemployment makes you extra introspective. I guess the monotony of: go to the gym, go to Starbucks, go home, make dinner, clean the house, watch TV/read, repeat takes its toll. I frequently tell my friends "I'm getting antsy."  Nothing good comes from me getting antsy, and nothing good comes from a life you're not truly living.

Gretchen states she believes since no two people are exactly alike, no two people will have the same "happiness project." In true writer/researcher fashion, she explains how she invested a great deal of time in looking up what "happiness" meant.  She then realized her goals were full of paradoxes: wanting to change things about herself, but wanting to accept herself.  She makes excellent points and brought up a lot of things for me to think about-and that was just in her introduction.

She found a number of definitions for "happiness", from philosophers to psychologists to various writers that have tackled the question humankind has been seeking out in one way or another for thousands of years. To me, this brought up the question: "What do I think happiness is?" And it's a thought I've been pondering for the past several hours and if I'm truly honest, probably for the past several years in one way or another.

So...what DO I think happiness is?  Is happiness a baby's laughter? An king-size Reeses? (an hour ago, yes, yes it was). A hug from the guy I'm dating? Or is it a more than a fleeting moment, but a state of being?  I think this book is going to be a very good read for me.  I never read anything remotely "self-help"-esque, but I'm not sure this book qualifies as a self-help book.  I'm definitely intrigued enough to read it and I think that even if I do or don't agree with her conclusions, it will give me much to think about these next few days/weeks.  (I tend to breeze through books very quickly, but I get the feeling this one will take a little more time than normal).

I'm excited to see how this book will influence me and my views of happiness and if it will have any application to my life as I read it.  I'll probably discuss it on here just for the hell of it, so stay tuned!