the happiness experiment, day two
I prefer my blog entries to be standalone entries – write my thoughts out into a few brief paragraphs and let them go, rather than carrying them over a several day period. It makes them easier to write, and I don’t have to worry about things like continuity, or whether you’ve read the previous entries so this one actually makes sense to you, stuff like that. But I felt the impact of the experiment could potentially be so great that it deserved at least one more entry. So I’ll start by giving you an update on how the rest of day 1 went.
I’m not going to blow smoke at you and tell you yesterday was all that and a bag of chips, as the saying goes. I still had a few ups and downs, but as a whole, the day was significantly better than my average day. I went to class last night for the first time in a couple of weeks, and it was good to get back on the mat, though I wasn’t sure I was going to last the first half hour due to the warmer temperature and humidity. I wasn’t sure I was going to make it through the last 30 minutes of class either, because my legs were hurting pretty good. It was good to be back though, and I wasn’t the only one glad to see me back on the mat.
Last night sitting at home after class, it was pretty obvious to me that my experiment produced a positive outcome. I was sore from class, but I had fewer lows, and the ones I had were shorter than usual. I was in a better mood, and I felt better overall. To my thinking, that made it something worth trying again. I am halfway through my second day, and my better mood is staying with me, though I’ll be interested to see if it continues to improve the more I do this.
I feel good about doing this, good enough that I don’t think I’m going to apply the word experiment to it anymore. I want this better mood and better way of being to remain, so I’m considering yesterday as the first day of a new habit – a habit of being happy by thinking about my happy place. After all, I’m building my happy place in my mind, and once it’s built in my mind, then I’m going to build it in the real world. I’ll admit that there may be elements to my happy place that are difficult,if not impossible to build, but rest assured, if they cannot be built, it will not be for lack of knowledge or lack of trying.
So, back to today, day 2 of my new habit. It has progressed much like yesterday. I have done better at not getting upset at external circumstances, I’m in a better mood, and, well, I just feel better. I’m looking forward to a lot more days of feeling better.
October 23rd, 2009 at 6:47 pm
Perhaps it would be better to continue to consider it an experiment, even though you can see it works. Remember the affirmation about being able to do for one day what would overwhelm you if you considered doing it for a lifetime? Even if normally that is used when discussing drug/alcohol addictions, it still applies to many other things as well. For those of us with a tendency to procrastinate, facing doing something for the rest of our life - no matter how good a thing it might be - seems to immobilize us. Embrace the experiment, you don’t have to do it for the rest of your life. Habits take at least 21 to 28 days to form the pattern in our brains. So, continue to experiment rather than claiming a life changing new habit before it is firmly in place. Eat the elephant one bite at a time. ~Autumn