Hey! You over there!

Since my last post about the true rules, and since finishing the book the Happiness Project, I've been trying very hard to pay attention to happiness. Not only in myself, but all around me. 

I do believe, and always have, that happiness is something we create for ourselves.  We're not always in the mood to be happy, and sometimes forget it does take effort.  And being happy, once you've done it for a while, isn't that hard.

Facebook seems to be a place to witness the unhappy. It might be the time of year, the week, the  month, whatever, but since I've been paying attention to the happiness around me, I've been somewhat surprised at the unhappiness of my friends. 

There are those friends who by and large are happy and were just having a bad day.  I get it. I've been there.  The boss drops a bomb on you and you're forced to stay late. Or you missed a deadline for reasons you can't control, and the boss notices.  Bad days happen. 

Yet I've noticed that some of my friends are consistently putting negative feeling comments in FB.  Do they not have anything happy in their lives? Or have things been so bad that they just can't see happiness?  I wonder about those friends and what I can do to help them. I have noticed that unhappy people don't particularly want help, advice, or guidance from happy people.  So I'm left wondering how I can help make them be a bit more happy? 

What makes me happy? A ton of things make me happy. There isn't enough time in the day some times to think of all of them.  I have been trying to think of three things every day that makes me happy. You wouldn't think it'd be hard, but let me tell you, when you're having a bad day, it's almost impossible. It's like scaling a tall building without any ropes.

Yesterday I had what I call a "I-can't-get-enough-food"day.  I ate my calories, and I was still hungry.  I wish I knew what caused that.  I could. Not. Stop. Eating.  Which of course, bummed me out. I was doing well most the day. I worked out - hard. Sat down on the couch to read and got hungry. Ate dinner. Didn't feel satisfied so ate some more.

You know low calorie snacks are good and help keep your calories on track - except when you eat several of them.  Princess Lori said to me one day after I mentioned the Nature Valley Thin Crisps are only 80 calories each, she asked, "How many in a box?" I said, "10." Her response, "then that's 800 calories for me. I'd eat the whole box."

And that's what yesterday was like. 

Still I made my list of three things that made me happy yesterday - as I sat discouraged on the couch I came up with one instantly.

1. Food.

I have tried to not duplicate what makes me happy so I really had to think hard. 

Then as if someone upstairs heard me (I think it was Grandma Spaid) I saw out of the corner of my eye Pookie fall off the back cushion of my chair.  In slow motion I saw him slip, then SPLAT on to the ground.  I laughed so hard my sides ached.  I couldn't catch my breath. As he walked around the side of the chair he was all, "I meant to do that." attitude. OMG...that cat!  I got the gut shaking giggles and had to call the MomUnit to report what the cat had done. 

2. Pookie

Still I was at a loss for what my third one for the day could be.  I remembered I had taken photos of the Sunday dinner crowd so decided to check them out.

3. Smores

Sunday dinner I did S'mores for dessert. Dinner was a disaster, thankfully S'mores saved the day.

Can you come up with three things daily that make you happy?