When looking back on the process of my happiness project, I have noticed many developments within myself and my way of viewing the world. From the RBS analysis done by my friends and family, to the key research findings outlined in this project, I have seen growth in myself through this project, specifically the happiness activities. I began this project by selecting a few goals that would lead me to increase my happiness over the course of a semester, with help of 3 goal related happiness activities. The goals that I chose were based off of what I believed I needed to improve on, or what I wanted to dig deeper into. I began to think of what I wanted to change in my life in order to be happier for myself and an even more pleasant person
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I took a unique approach to this and started recording my daily moods on an app, called Daily-O. This app allows you to track what you felt during the day by selecting a series of activities and one general feeling for how that day went. I set an alarm to remind me every night to do this before bed. By the time I was ready to go to bed, I remined myself that these small things are not that serious, just as Carson (2014) stated in his book, Don’t Sweat The Small Stuff… And It Is All Small Stuff. As he suggests, everything we think of is a choice after it happens the first time. (Carson, 2014) For example, if I choose to continue to think about what someone said about me, it is no longer useful because I a) can’t change it, and b) don’t have any business wondering why they said what they said. Likewise, during the day if I was about to waste time on obsessing about something that happened, I reminded myself that I would be able to think about it later at a designated time of day if it was really that important, if not, I would unconsciously forget about it by the time my alarm went off. Another example of this goal in practice was when I began to worry and have deep thoughts about a bad food choice I made, thinking it would ruin my overall physique goals, I put things into perspective as Lyubomirsky (2007) suggests doing when beginning to stress about the small stuff. …show more content…
The happiness activities that I practiced were what prompted me to look at my current state of mind and understand that in order to be happier, I must change a few things. Learning to cope with certain things such as overthinking and stressing out about the small stuff, led me to get on track to becoming the best version of myself and be more like the person that my participants painted me as in the RBS, all the time. The other activities such as savoring life’s joys and practicing gratitude also contributed to the overall growth of my happiness, because they challenged me to become a more compassionate and positive person. Also, like I mentioned, I am a more positive thinker now, making me feel better about the energy I put out into the world, as Floyd (2002) describes as emotional contagion within the human affection exchange. All in all, this project initially seemed like something that would be hard for me to do, because I generally do not like change, however, I found the exact opposite to be true. I have thoroughly enjoyed helping myself change and make adjustments where needed in order to be the best version of myself. Now that I explained the project and my activities within it, the next section will be documentation of those
I took a unique approach to this and started recording my daily moods on an app, called Daily-O. This app allows you to track what you felt during the day by selecting a series of activities and one general feeling for how that day went. I set an alarm to remind me every night to do this before bed. By the time I was ready to go to bed, I remined myself that these small things are not that serious, just as Carson (2014) stated in his book, Don’t Sweat The Small Stuff… And It Is All Small Stuff. As he suggests, everything we think of is a choice after it happens the first time. (Carson, 2014) For example, if I choose to continue to think about what someone said about me, it is no longer useful because I a) can’t change it, and b) don’t have any business wondering why they said what they said. Likewise, during the day if I was about to waste time on obsessing about something that happened, I reminded myself that I would be able to think about it later at a designated time of day if it was really that important, if not, I would unconsciously forget about it by the time my alarm went off. Another example of this goal in practice was when I began to worry and have deep thoughts about a bad food choice I made, thinking it would ruin my overall physique goals, I put things into perspective as Lyubomirsky (2007) suggests doing when beginning to stress about the small stuff. …show more content…
The happiness activities that I practiced were what prompted me to look at my current state of mind and understand that in order to be happier, I must change a few things. Learning to cope with certain things such as overthinking and stressing out about the small stuff, led me to get on track to becoming the best version of myself and be more like the person that my participants painted me as in the RBS, all the time. The other activities such as savoring life’s joys and practicing gratitude also contributed to the overall growth of my happiness, because they challenged me to become a more compassionate and positive person. Also, like I mentioned, I am a more positive thinker now, making me feel better about the energy I put out into the world, as Floyd (2002) describes as emotional contagion within the human affection exchange. All in all, this project initially seemed like something that would be hard for me to do, because I generally do not like change, however, I found the exact opposite to be true. I have thoroughly enjoyed helping myself change and make adjustments where needed in order to be the best version of myself. Now that I explained the project and my activities within it, the next section will be documentation of those