Happy

I've been thinking a lot about happiness.

For one thing, on Sunday morning DH called me out for being generally "serious." Not a bad thing, just the way I am, he said. I pouted for the rest of the day about it. See, in my mind I turned it around so that serious = "no fun," which is not what he was implying, but just the way my mind sometimes works. (We talked about it and it's fine -- Honey, I only bring it up because it fits in with the story.)

Aside from that, I've been looking at a blog called The Happiness Project, for work actually. Gretchen Rubin, the blog's author, has done a year-long study of a ton of theories about happiness. She's read books, analyzed research, etc. It's interesting. Kind-of a self-help book, which I'm sometimes drawn to, but in a more detatched way. Like, "I'm studying these self-help (hippie-dippie meditation) principles... not applying them to my life necessarily."

Now. Exactly what I do NOT NEED is another Project to tend. (Speaking of which, someone throttle me the next time I bring up the 30-Day Shred, okay? Let's just put an end to those declarations once and for all.) And in reading Start your own Happiness Project, I get all flustered and overwhelmed because there's a Toolbox and you're supposed to make resolutions, captial R. In my experience, those are sometimes a recipe for failure, and for KNOWING your own failure, because you wrote them down and then if you don't get to check them off... Doom. FAIL.

So I may or may not sign up on her site. However... I like the idea of being more mindful and aware of my level of happiness. Not meditating, per se, but pausing to breathe every so often.

I have more to say (I think) about this -- part of which is that I find myself too often unhappy, and I can't figure out why. Hormones play a part, but it's mostly about my work. Earlier this week I was lolling the words "life coach" and "career coach" around in my head, because even though I like my job okay, I don't jump out of bed excited about it. I don't even walk into the building excited. It's just a job. And They Say...Theyyyyyyyy!.... that people really exist who LOVE what they do.

I want to believe that, but I'm not sure I do. I think anything you do as work -- repetitively, every day, and specifically in order to earn money -- will sometimes feel like work, not like fun. But I could be wrong. So I want to explore it a little more. Anyone with insight? Anyone reading this who truly adores their job? Please tell me about it.

I also wanted to share this post (read the comments too) with my fellow parenting buddies. It's got some great tips and tricks.