How to Create My Own Happiness Project

Copied from Gretchen Rubin's Happiness Project website Happiness Project Toolbox

1. What makes me feel good? What activities do you find fun, energizing, or satisfying? 
2. What makes me feel bad? What are sources of anger, irritation, boredom, frustration or anxiety in my life?
3. Is there any way in which I don't feel right about my life? Do I wish you could change jobs, cities, family situation, or other circumstances? Am I living up to( your expectations for yourself? Does my life reflect your values? 
4. Do I have sources of an atmosphere of growth? In what areas of my life do I find progress, learning, challenge, improvement and increased mastery? 

(Do any of you want to try this exercise along with me? I think it would be fun and interesting to hear what others think.)

What makes me feel good? What activities do I find fun, energizing, or satisfying? (In the book, the author talks about these activities are not necessarily the same as those we wish we find satisfying.)

1. Hiking.  Being in the wilderness. Backpacking/camping used to be a blast for me as well. I haven't done it in a while now, but I think I would still enjoy it. Whether camping will be worth the effort with a baby remains to be seen... but I'd like to try it! 
2. Gardening! Kind of a surprise to me, since I hated it as a child (forced to do it as a child at summer camp, we all assumed we hated it. What a surprise to find that I adore weeding!)
3. Baking. I think. At least, I used to love it. I haven't tried it in a while. Cooking can also be fun, but only when I am not tired or rushed or too hungry... and I tend to wait until those conditions are present before I even consider heading to the kitchen. 
4. Meeting up with my favorite friends. Conversations with them nourish my soul.  
5. Making new friends. An unexpected treat when it happens!
6. Reading. I don't prioritize this enough. Lying on the couch reading, making this the only thing I am doing, and not just for five minutes to wind down to go to sleep... this is a rare treat that makes me feel spoiled. Given that it makes me feel so good, why don't I do it more often?
7. Work. So often recently, I dread it... but when I'm actually with a patient, and in the zone (most of the time, really), it's downright fun. It energizes me when I am tired. I'm lucky, and need to remember it. 
8. Eating great meals at interesting restaurants. Luckily I have a best friend (also long term and now long ago ex boyfriend) who is happy to foot the bill. 
9. Theater. This can be so fun and interesting and entertaining... if I don't do it too often, and if I am well rested. 
10. Cleaning and organizing. This one sounds strange. I don't really enjoy the process so much, but the energy and mood boost I get when I see the result is astounding. 
11. Crossing things off my to-do list. I've recently learned to reach for my to-do list when I am not enjoying being at work. ...Strange, but it works! (Interestingly, my energy level rarely flags when work is busy... more support for item six.)
12. Travel. But only with people I enjoy traveling with, and who have free time when I do, and the interest to go with me. Which is almost impossible to arrange in recent years. But making time to be alone while traveling with others is important to my fun, too... and not always easy for me to promote -- I tend to feel guilty about my need for alone time. 
13. Being well rested. Not very interesting, but hugely important to my happiness. As Gretchen Rubin quipped, "Sleep is the new sex." (I'm so glad I have a reason to justify why I'm not getting laid!) I am working on being more consistent in the hours I keep so that I don't start each way already tired from Sunday night insomnia. Hard to do because I also love sleeping in on weekends! Hopefully my new garden commitments willl help with this. 
14. Blogging. A new and surprisingly satisfying hobby! I worry that I don't blog for the right reasons, though. 
15. Feeling my baby (!) squirm inside me. A short-lived pleasure, to be sure, and thankfully so. But it's great for the time being! 
16. Autonomy. I don't do well with authority. One of the wonderful things about my job is that there is no one looking over my shoulder, no one who even knows what I do, day to day. Being self motivated works so much better for me. A thing to remember to appreciate.

What makes me feel bad? What are sources of anger, irritation, boredom, frustration or anxiety in my life?

1. Worrying about/ being late. 
2. Being tired. Boring, but true. 
3. Being at parties with lots of people. Especially if I don't them. But usually, even if I do know them. Even large family gatherings are stressful -- I never know who, exactly, to talk to, or what to talk to them about. Brings out my social anxiety.
4. Bars
5. Alcohol (regardless of where I drink it), unless it's a small amount, and consumed with food.
6. Listening to women talk about diets. It makes me simultaneously bored, anxious, and sad for them. I committed to not dieting 2.5 years ago, and have never looked back. And no, not because my body is perfect... but because life is too short to obsess about my appearance.
7. Talking about music. Or listening to it, unless I'm house cleaning. 
8. Poorly run meetings (at work)

Is there any way in which I don't feel right about my life? Do I wish I could change jobs, cities, family situation, or other circumstances? Am I living up to your expectations for yourself? Does my life reflect your values? 

1. Things I don't feel right about. Mostly, I feel good about my life. I feel like my habits generally support my values. Losing hours inside my apartment on weekends is fun at first, but can end up making me feel vaguely depressed. My work is rewarding, if not as new and exciting and challenging as it once was. Fighting my conflicting feelings about exercise (knowing it will make me feel good, but not being in the mood to exert the effort to counteract inertia) can be stressful. 
2. Things I might want to change.I am not sure, but I might want to change cities. I love and miss the Bay Area. I'm frustrated with the winters in NYC, and quite possibly the summers as well (this will be my first summer to stay home during the summer). But I'm scared about how unsettling it would be to move. I don't know how to put this quandary to rest. I don't know what, exactly, I'm scared of if I move. This is an issue to come back to. (Sorry, dear readers, I know you've already heard enough!) My friend's offer to use her apartment in Sausalito, just north of San Francisco, during the summers is a tempting one, and might be a good way to, at the very least, get to enjoy SF, and at the most, might make it easier to make a decision.

Do I have sources of an atmosphere of growth? In what areas of my life do I find progress, learning, challenge, improvement and increased mastery?

This is a poorly written question! I don't know what that first sentence means! I am, sort of, doing the coursework to become a lactation consultant. Or at least, I hope to finish said coursework once school ends and before the Girl comes.... it's been several months since I have looked at it. I figure it will be a good way to pass the time, stay busy, learn something, and possibly, learn a marketable skill for the future.

I've also got my community garden to work in and learn from, and hopefully playing music (banjo and/or guitar.. banjo has been too frustrating, but I'd love to get back to it... I was loving it last summer). And learning about my window garden. And then there will be learning how to be a parent! And not just any parent, but a parent to my particular little girl. I'm also learning more about how to eat in keeping with the work of Weston Price, and I might even try a related but stricter diet. (In the meantime, I'm pleased with the progress I am making! Much less sugar than I used to have, but without any feelings of rebellion. And when I had a rice krispie treat last Friday... I enjoyed every bite!)

I would love to hear what others think of these questions, if any of you are interesting in participating.