3/25/2019 5 Comments Happiness is...So I was thinking about this happiness challenge I just completed. A year ago, my friend Shari and I embarked on a "100 Happy Days Challenge". We had been discussing where we were on our happiness journey and I reminded her of this challenge I had done about 5 years prior. The 100 Happy Days Challenge was started by Dmitry Golubnichy in 2013. It was a personal challenge he established where he would post something that made him happy each day for 100 days. He began this journey after finding himself discontent with his career and other "first world" problems, but then realized that his friends were happy with circumstances that were seemingly mundane. Dmitry figured if they could be happy, certainly he could too. He decided to post a picture on social media for 100 days that reflected something that made him happy that day and used the hashtag #100HappyDays. As his friends noticed what he was doing, they wanted to join. From there, the challenge continued to grow and more than EIGHT MILLION people have participated! You can find out more about this movement by clicking here. After I recounted to Shari how rewarding the challenge had been for me, she decided that she wanted to do it and I agreed to join her again. The challenge proved to be such a fulfilling endeavor, that we decided to extend it to a year and continued to post using the hashtag, #365HappyDays.
I am pleased to say that we finished the challenge yesterday and it was just that, a CHALLENGE. If I didn't understand the concept of the word, I undeniably do now! Heartache, death, disappointment, illness, rejection, confusion, mental illness, fear; these, among others, are all things I encountered that effected me either directly or indirectly during this last year. There were many days where it was a legitimate struggle to find something that made me happy during the day, but I did and learned (and remembered) so much during the process. One major key I recalled is that being happy does not mean being devoid of struggle or pain. Happiness is about choice, perspective, and emotional maturity. Emotional maturity is this: acknowledging your various emotions, allowing yourself to feel, and realizing that it isn't healthy to suppress your feelings OR dwell on your feelings to the point that they become toxic. By sticking with this challenge, I have clarity of what happiness is to me. Check out these 10 points. Happiness is:
Focusing on positivity and finding my daily happy, caused me to have more of an attitude of gratefulness, which transformed my perspective. I found myself in more of a state of thankfulness than in pity-party mode. There really is always a bright side, and for that I am happy. ☀️🙂
5 Comments
Mary Thompson
3/25/2019 01:55:50 pm
Wonderful!!!
Reply
Breneka
4/6/2019 04:04:32 am
I love that you share you life with us. You never fail to inspire me to live my best life. You always remind me that life has various ups and downs, but in each day there is still joy!!! Thank you for that!!!
Reply
Tacara
4/14/2019 08:09:57 pm
Simply beautiful and very touching. Thank you for your truth.
Reply
Cheryce
4/15/2019 03:50:55 am
Thank you for reading! ?
Reply
Brittni Cullar
4/23/2019 09:00:00 pm
I’ve watched your 100 day challenge and I am so impressed! I’ve been wanting to join not for attention but out of a need to find joy and peace-the kind that the Bible speaks of. The kind that comes from the inside and not the artificial type. You’ve inspired me!
Reply
Your comment will be posted after it is approved.
Leave a Reply. |