Those are the first few lines of Gretchen Rubin’s book The Happiness Project. For those of you
who know me, you may be sick of hearing me go on and on about this, or I may
have already converted you as a happiness project lover. OR, this may be the
first time you’re hearing about it! Whichever of these describes you, please read
on and learn or remember the amazingness of this book!
Part memoir, part self-help, part life guidebook, The Happiness Project is an amazing work
that is all about enhancing one’s love of life, and becoming happier, which is
what Tarreyn Land is all about! Because it was a major catalyst in encouraging me to create
this blog as well as change many things in my life for the better, I felt it
was important to write about this book for the first edition of “Buzz.”
The basic premise is this: Gretchen Rubin, a happily
married author and mother living in New York decided that while she was generally
happy, she suffered from “midlife malaise – a recurrent sense of discontent and
almost a feeling of disbelief.” With the abrupt decision to tackle this feeling
and improve her life, Rubin decided to dedicate an entire year trying to be
happier. To do this, she created a list of dozens of different kinds of resolutions
and applied one to every month of the year. Some examples of her monthly goals
would be to “boost energy” in January, “aim higher” in March, or “pursue a
passion” in September. In the first month, she resolved to focus on only those
resolutions, then in February added the next set, and by December she was
working on a whole year’s worth of resolutions.
As a reader, what
make’s Rubin’s journey so compelling is that she is incredibly relatable and accessible.
Throughout the book she maintains an incredibly strong stance on the belief
that what makes someone happy is different for everyone, and allows for easy
individualization of every step and idea. In fact, her first personal commandment
is to “Be Gretchen,” or be yourself. She offers incredibly helpful advice
without any pretense or condescension, and her writing style is solid, friendly
and relaxed.
Rubin has done her research, and the reader strongly
benefits from that. Before and during her adventure to find more bliss, she did
tons of investigation on happiness, gaining information and perspectives from
philosophers, scientists, theologians, historians, and even her friends, family
and blog readers. You get the benefits of the knowledge without having to look
beyond this book (however in my experience a lot of people who connect with the
book choose to do further research on their own). The information resonates,
and you will find yourself applying it to your life almost instantaneously. You
may find yourself hugging people for longer after you discover that a hug must
last at least 6 seconds to fully release mood-boosting chemicals. Or, you might
finally organize that hallway closet that’s been nagging you for a year because
you’ve learned that outer and inner calm directly connect.
Certain chapters
are more relatable than others, but then again what I found extremely helpful
might be useless for others, and vice-versa. For me, a not very religious or
spiritual person, the chapter on contemplating the heavens was not nearly as
helpful as the one on being serious about play. However, in keeping with the
theme of being yourself, this is great because it allows you to hone in further
on what you do or don’t connect with, or what does and doesn’t make you happy.
Along with her resolutions, another important feature of
the book is the foundation for the project that consisted of several
components: a list of personal
commandments, secrets of adulthood, recommended reading, myths and paradoxes about happiness and a
happiness manifesto. All of these are available on her blog¸ where she also provides you with the tools to start your own happiness project, set your own
resolutions, and more. Another great
feature of the website that I highly recommend is to sign up for daily moment
of happiness emails. These moments are sent every weekday morning and are a
quote on happiness of some sort from countless people in history and society. I’m
a big fan of quotes, and I love waking up and starting my day on the right foot
by reading them.
The only complaint I have about the website is that there
is SOO much information and SOO many things to look at and do, that it can be
really overwhelming, even for someone like me who has visited frequently. But
if you take a deep breath and spend some time looking around, I think you will
be excited about it too!
I am naturally an incredibly happy person, but this book
helped change my outlook on life, and improved my behavior on an overwhelming
level. Aristotle described happiness as summum
bonum, the chief good. He also said that “Happiness is the meaning and
purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence.” I couldn’t agree
more. The Happiness Project can help
you reach the chief good through countless suggestions and ideas. Clear clutter,
reduce nagging your partner, have more energy, improve your work, “find more
fun”, enjoy now, help your relationship with yourself and others, and so much
more. I know I’m emphatic about this, but finding your passion is all part of
the experience!
I
encourage you all to buy the book, look to her website, and start your very own
happiness project. As Rubin says: “Whenever you read this, and wherever you
are, you are in the right place to begin.”
No comments:
Post a Comment