Checking in

It's amazing what a three-day weekend can do to you. Last week was stressful and I failed to keep up to date on my happiness calendar.  Even with that excuse, I just kind of checked out of my happiness project. Now, I knew before I started this task that I wouldn't always be able to make all of my "goals" for the day, but I never thought I'd be one to miss an entire week (especially, since I'm still on the first month). I'm not totally discouraged or frustrated with myself that i completely ignored these resolutions, because I feel I'm due a little more credit.

When I looked back over the past week, I may have neglected my blog, but I was getting better at exercising and waking up earlier, and it was all due to working these two factors into my routine! I'll take two out of three for a week, but I must get better at writing things down in this blog and checking over my happiness calendar, so I can actually reflect and remind myself why I'm doing this.

With that said, I'm excited about the short work week ahead and a fun-filled weekend to look forward to. A photo shoot for a friend's yoga studio and hanging out in Fort Worth with my best friend, should get me through the short week!

Anticipation

This weekend, I started to get particularly excited for my Caribbean cruise I'm looking forward to for next month! As I got more and more anxious about the details such as choosing an excursion, getting in swim suit shape and missing work,  I started to think, am I not living in the present if I'm thinking about the future, especially in this type of anxious way?

The Happiness Project disucsses the 4 stages of happiness: anticipate, savor, express and reflect.
After reading this section, I realized that subconsciously, I too, associate anticipation with the fear that I might be let down if the event I was anticipating didn't go as planned. There's always going to be things that you can't control, but in order to truly be happy in the moment, sometimes you have to anticipate the good that comes your way...More happiness bang for your buck if you will. 

This month, as I focus on my theme of getting into a routine, I'm going to do better of anticipating in the present. Most of all, I am going to follow through on making more of an effort to schedule things into my day that will give me a happiness boost. For instance, when I know that going to the last day of an exhibit at one of my favorite Fort Worth museums would boost my happiness, then why not put it in the calendar to anticipate and really get excited for it? With a little over a month until my cruise, I am going to anticipate each day of the vacation and think about it anytime I may get overwhelmed, frustrated or exhausted in the present. Even better-keeping the cruise on my mind will help motivate me to get to the gym!

Write IT Down.

Five days into my project, I can't help but notice how hard it has been for me to get on the blog and write something out. I have plenty of emotinos, thoughts and ideas about my resolutions to write on paper, but for some reason making the time for it has been such an issue.

Surprisingly, I would have thought exercising better would be much harder to accomplish on a daily basis than writing for my blog, but regardless, I knew going into this, it wouldn't all be easy...and that was what keeping up with my blog was for! I hope that on the nights I'm struggling with writing, I can come back to this post and realize this is an integral part of my resolutions and finding a happier place.