If you like to see my #100happydays album, you can find it here.
33 days ago, on what amounts to a whim, I decided to join the #100happydays challenge. The reason? I don't have one. It's kinda unlike me. Normally I think and I brood and I agonize. I guess maybe I was watching WonderPup recovering from surgery thinking "I'm so grateful today" and before I knew it, Day 1 was born.
I'm committed to the idea now though. It's not that I think we have to be happy all the time. It's unrealistic to expect something like that. There were times in my life when I would have been ill-equipped at finding anything to be happy about. There were other times in my life I would have agonized over whether I was happy enough. Lastly, there may have been times I'd have had a full throttle anxiety attack every time I tried to take a picture of something. Somehow, it's not any of those things today.
With the first 1/3 of the challenge completed, I'd like to share just a couple of thoughts with you about why I like this, what it means to me, and what I've learned.
1. If I could rename this, I'd call it #100gratefulmoments. As I mentioned before, its not realistic to always be happy. Life is a series of ups and downs - hell, even days can be that way. It's easy to get sucked into the violence and brutality of your day, even if you genuinely lead a happy life. But this is, for me, an exercise in finding gratitude and joy in relatively small moments. After all, the biggest moments of our lives are made up of all the small things we had to do just to get there.
2. It's empowering to be free. I try not to prescribe the moment. In fact, many of my pictures aren't even very good; they are often blurry, uncentered, or not entirely related to the text in the update. But too much emphasis on snapshot of the moment means you lose it. Too much orchestration of the people and places and it sullies the joy. I love being present and suddenly deciding "this is my happy day today." There's a coke picture that says "friend" and "bff" from Day 31 that maybe is my favorite. I hadn't considered that could ever be a happy day, particularly not when I thought it would be a boring picture of the TEDx sign. Instead this awesome organic thing happened, and I got to tag my UnlikelyFriend and HumanM instead. 100happydays - 0: Indian Mushroom - 1.
3. Hard days are hard. Really hard. In 33 days, I had more of them than you'd expect from what I posted. Those of us who battle Depression and Anxiety or have loved ones who do understand that sometimes it's just a struggle to simply get up. And yet, I found something to post everyday. Three times I wondered "well what could be a happy one today in this shitty endless day?" But then something struck me and even in those days I had something to reframe into joy: fresh coffee in a favorite mug, finding a misplaced remote in a silly place, and last night - a picture of me getting ready to go out, feeling good about myself, because I had the courage to ask for what I needed --- and people came through.
4. My happy day are probably predictable now. Nearly all of them acknowledged these fantastic humans I have in my life. I'm eternally thankful for all of these people, but to see them posted one after another, in different variations, in different situations, for different reasons, I am no longer simply thankful; I am humbled. What a tremendous reminder to me that even the hardest of days are made easier by people who love me. How lucky I am to spend my life with these dear friends, the very people who prove to me that opening my heart is a risk worth taking, an irrefutable decision that connects me to friends I can't live without.
I leave you with those 4 things for now. There are 67 more days to go, with another entry in 33. I'm not sure what else I will find in the next 1/3 of the challenge, but I sincerely appreciate your patience and support as I participate. Thank you for seeing the updates, liking the pictures, and reading this entry. Cheers my friends, and may you have InfiniteHappyDays.
33 days ago, on what amounts to a whim, I decided to join the #100happydays challenge. The reason? I don't have one. It's kinda unlike me. Normally I think and I brood and I agonize. I guess maybe I was watching WonderPup recovering from surgery thinking "I'm so grateful today" and before I knew it, Day 1 was born.
I'm committed to the idea now though. It's not that I think we have to be happy all the time. It's unrealistic to expect something like that. There were times in my life when I would have been ill-equipped at finding anything to be happy about. There were other times in my life I would have agonized over whether I was happy enough. Lastly, there may have been times I'd have had a full throttle anxiety attack every time I tried to take a picture of something. Somehow, it's not any of those things today.
With the first 1/3 of the challenge completed, I'd like to share just a couple of thoughts with you about why I like this, what it means to me, and what I've learned.
1. If I could rename this, I'd call it #100gratefulmoments. As I mentioned before, its not realistic to always be happy. Life is a series of ups and downs - hell, even days can be that way. It's easy to get sucked into the violence and brutality of your day, even if you genuinely lead a happy life. But this is, for me, an exercise in finding gratitude and joy in relatively small moments. After all, the biggest moments of our lives are made up of all the small things we had to do just to get there.
2. It's empowering to be free. I try not to prescribe the moment. In fact, many of my pictures aren't even very good; they are often blurry, uncentered, or not entirely related to the text in the update. But too much emphasis on snapshot of the moment means you lose it. Too much orchestration of the people and places and it sullies the joy. I love being present and suddenly deciding "this is my happy day today." There's a coke picture that says "friend" and "bff" from Day 31 that maybe is my favorite. I hadn't considered that could ever be a happy day, particularly not when I thought it would be a boring picture of the TEDx sign. Instead this awesome organic thing happened, and I got to tag my UnlikelyFriend and HumanM instead. 100happydays - 0: Indian Mushroom - 1.
3. Hard days are hard. Really hard. In 33 days, I had more of them than you'd expect from what I posted. Those of us who battle Depression and Anxiety or have loved ones who do understand that sometimes it's just a struggle to simply get up. And yet, I found something to post everyday. Three times I wondered "well what could be a happy one today in this shitty endless day?" But then something struck me and even in those days I had something to reframe into joy: fresh coffee in a favorite mug, finding a misplaced remote in a silly place, and last night - a picture of me getting ready to go out, feeling good about myself, because I had the courage to ask for what I needed --- and people came through.
4. My happy day are probably predictable now. Nearly all of them acknowledged these fantastic humans I have in my life. I'm eternally thankful for all of these people, but to see them posted one after another, in different variations, in different situations, for different reasons, I am no longer simply thankful; I am humbled. What a tremendous reminder to me that even the hardest of days are made easier by people who love me. How lucky I am to spend my life with these dear friends, the very people who prove to me that opening my heart is a risk worth taking, an irrefutable decision that connects me to friends I can't live without.
I leave you with those 4 things for now. There are 67 more days to go, with another entry in 33. I'm not sure what else I will find in the next 1/3 of the challenge, but I sincerely appreciate your patience and support as I participate. Thank you for seeing the updates, liking the pictures, and reading this entry. Cheers my friends, and may you have InfiniteHappyDays.
