My happiness advice today from my calendar is: “Remember small moments – Look for ways to record the fleeting moments that make life sweet but that so easily vanish from memory. Expressing and recalling your feelings amplifies the effect of happy experiences.”
Is it easy to remember these small moments? Not for most people. There are some ways to capture these without a big time commitment. Have you ever heard of the 30 day photo challenges? Especially with smart phones now that all have cameras, these challenges can be fairly easy as long as you have a reminder set each day or have the list posted somewhere. Here is one example from a great website Positively Present
It is simply a challenge to capture a quick photo of the small moments. Things that make you happy and smile each day that you would normally just quickly forget about. My recommendation is to complete one of these challenges and then order a small book of your instagram photos to keep in your desk drawer. Then, if you need a little pick me up, you can simply grab the book and allow yourself to remember the small moments.
Another suggestion I have would be to start your own blog. It doesn’t take too much time and you can simply document these small moments and look back on them and smile later. I do this often. I finally merged the blog I had for the last few years with this one, so it is fun to look back and see what was happening in my day to day life in 2009. If a blog is overwhelming to you or you don’t want your laundry aired out on the internet, stores sell one sentence journals (or you can purchase a notebook) and all that requires is one sentence a day. It could be something you are grateful for that day, or something you overheard. Here is a journal that is put out by the same author that created my happiness calendar:
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| http://www.amazon.com/The-Happiness-Project-One-Sentence-Journal/dp/0307888576 |
I like the idea of one small act of kindness each day and writing about it. I keep this website Random Acts of Kindness bookmarked and each day they have an idea of a kindness act that you can do that day. There was a great list of 50 in Good Housekeeping this month as well – some things are so easy, simple and cheap – and you don’t know how much you could really impact someone’s day.
So, give it a try. Take a photo of the smile on your dog’s face or your sleeping and peaceful child. Write down one thing you loved about your day before you go to sleep every night.
Today, I am grateful for my father & his beautiful garden. I went running with my mom last night on day 3 of the couch to 5k. When I arrived back at his house, he had a bucket full of fresh picked raspberries that he wanted me to take home. He spent at least 20 minutes picking raspberries just for me and J. They are soooo good when they are straight from his garden and it saved me about $4.00 because I would have purchased them at the grocery store this evening. Planting raspberry bushes in my yard in on my 30 before 30 list and the main reason is the amount of joy it brings me to have fresh fruit available all summer long. Thanks Dad!
