3 Good Things: Happiness for Beginners

Last month, I revisited one of my favourite books from last year, Happiness for Beginners by Katherine Center. If you haven’t read it and you are looking for a good summer read that is quite light-hearted but SO fun, I would absolutely recommend it. I love book that I can think back on. Some of my favourite books of all time might not be high literature or recommended for everyone, but they make me think a bit about how I can make my life better or how I can approach a situation in a new way. I think about parts of Happiness for Beginners quite often and re-read sections of it now and then when I just want to revisit the characters. There are also a number of wonderful quotes and happy life lessons in the book.

If you haven’t read the book yet, it’s about a woman named Helen who decides to do a three week camping/hiking/intense outdoor adventure with a group just for a change in life after her divorce. She ends up being the oldest in the group, and she generally feels like she doesn’t fit in. Her younger brother’s friend is along on the trip too (there’s more to that story if you catch my drift). One of the other hikers is named Windy. She is an easygoing, Buddhist, happy, friendly, smart young woman that Helen wants to hate but can’t help but love. Windy is studying positive psychology and she says to Helen says that you should always try to find three good things each day. She expresses this during a particularly challenging day on the hike. Here’s what she says:

“The more you register good things, the more you will think about and remember good things. And since all you really have left of the past is what you remember —” ‘

“It changes the story of your life,” Helen finishes.

Windy also tells her: “Write three good things you remember of that day every night.”

This idea is excellent for Helen as she struggles through difficult thoughts and physically challenging days hiking out doors. Furthermore, this concept is probably not unfamiliar to many of us: If you are interested in being happier at all, you’ve probably come across the practice of writing down a few things you’re grateful for at the end of the day. The book expands a bit into glass-half-full talk too:

“Well, for example, happy people are more likely to register joy than unhappy people. So if you take two people who have experienced a day of, say, fifty percent good things and fifty percent bad things, an unhappy person would remember more of the bad.”

I love the idea of changing your mental networks by trying to remember as many positive memories as you can. I know for sure that I remember happy moments with my kids a lot more than I remember tantrums. I try to express and acknowledge my gratitude for my life as much as I can, but some days it is easy to get bogged down by tiredness, or the weather, or feeling busy or overwhelmed.

Here are 3 good things on my mind today for Thursday Thoughts.

1) It has been gorgeous, sunny, and spring-like the past few days and I am enjoying time spent outdoors whenever possible. We are blessed to live in a beautiful location of the world.

2) My week has been busy with fun things, including a lot of quality time with a close friend who I don’t see nearly often enough.

3) My children have been adorable, loving, and well-behaved in particular this week, and I am loving this stage that our little family is in.

Anyone else read this book? It would really make for perfect summer reading, in my opinion! I have enjoyed 3/5 of her books – I still have 2 left to read and she has a new book coming out early 2018!!

A few random thoughts

Here are some random confessions and thoughts on this lovely rainy Thursday.

On Sunday, something compelled me to cut my girls’ hair MYSELF. I still can’t explain it. Both of them ended up with short bobs that are a little bit choppy and I felt huge mommy guilt over it for about a day, but they seem happy, they look pretty cute, and this hair will be great for summer. I made Brian promise never to let me do this again though because what was I thinking?!?

I love getting daily book deals. Modern Mrs. Darcy’s kindle deals are my favourite, but I also enjoy BookBub and Early Bird Books. I don’t know if I will necessarily ever finish all of the books I get for free or (very) cheap, but it’s fun to get them!!

I haven’t checked Snapchat in months. I think Instagram stories basically just took that over, in my opinion. Does anyone still really use both? That being said, I don’t really love posting my own Instagram stories although I feel like I should start because I love watching others’ stories. One thing I find kind of weird is that you have to reply with a message if you want to comment on the story. So I don’t mind doing this (quite frequently!) to Kristen or Brie, who I “know” or at least have interacted with online quite a bit, but I’m not going to send Sarah Michelle Gellar a message if I liked her instagram story because weird?! haha.

We have 2 cars. One is a 2010 Rav4 that has only had VERY minor repairs here and there. The other is a 2004 Honda civic that was sooo nicely given to us by my in-laws when we were desperately in need of a car 5 years ago. We have sunk tons of money into the civic but it seems to just be more worth it to spend approx $1500 on a car every year or two than buy a new one right now. Anyway, we just had something fixed on it last week (the starter – $400) and then on Friday right after we got the car back, Brian hit a raccoon on the highway and the whole car was damaged to the tune of a broken radiator ($500). BRUTAL. We barely drive the car but we will need it more in the coming months so we want to hold onto it.

Right now, I have 2 books out from the library in audio format AND print. I feel super selfish about this, but in reality, they just came in around the same time and this will get me through the books quicker, right?! haha.

I’m running a 5K on Sunday around Citadel Hill, which is a historical landmark (and BIG hill with trenches/moat/etc) and I have barely been running lately. I’m sure I will survive though…and then get back into running.

I finally finished The Count of Monte Cristo!! This feels SO good. Now I can move on to more fun audiobooks. Guys, it took me four months to listen to this book. My thoughts: it was good, but it was Loooooong.

Thursday Thoughts

It’s been a really busy week here on the family side of things. Molly started school last week and turned 5 years old on Monday. It has definitely been a transition going from full-time daycare in someone’s home to a before/after school daycare centre + school all day. Not only is there the transition of two different daycare drop offs/pick ups (Lucy is still at the in-home daycare), I have to be much more organized with what Molly brings with her every day. Her school lunch requires a bit more thought (but I think I’m figuring it out!). We get handouts and important notices from her teacher every day that need to be read, signed, processed, and put in a safe place. We hear about her day, for which I am grateful, but we don’t hear about all of it (that’s life!). It has been an exciting, emotional time, but it has been wonderful too and I’m so happy that she is doing well and loving school.

That’s the main “news” in our lives – Brian has also had an extremely busy week at work and we had a super busy weekend, so I’m playing catch-up this week. That being said, I am also taking a lot of downtime to read more and do yoga at home. My weekly yoga class with my amazing instructor didn’t have a summer session but it started back up again on Monday and IT FELT FANTASTIC to be back in that room.

Source

At Beauty and the Beast at Neptune Theatre

I also took a longer lunch break yesterday to swim laps for the first time in a LONG time. It was tough!! I swam in a competitive club from age 11-16 and in my last year, I was swimming 6-7 times/week and for at least an hour (usually 2) each session. Yesterday, 15 years later, I swam for a half hour and it felt tiring and not good. Obviously my body is a different shape than it was then, and my endurance is nowhere near where it used to be, but I would like to get back into this and feel more comfortable in the pool again. It still felt very natural, but I am excited to get better at it and develop more endurance in the pool. I also have a bit of a cold and my lung capacity is a bit off this week, which didn’t help my breathing while swimming (#excuses) ;). You could say I was a bit inspired by the Olympics to get back in the pool.

It’s feeling a little bit like fall in Halifax. Even though it has still been mostly warm, the humidity has gone down and it reminded me that this is my favourite season for running. I have a 5K next weekend and I can’t wait for it – apparently the route is gorgeous. We’re also spending our Saturday doing one of my favourite fall activities: apple picking in the valley with my sister and her family. The girls LOVE it because we get to see some farm animals, go on a wagon ride, and eat apples all day. haha.

Speaking of fall, I made a delicious AND healthier broccoli + cheese + vegetable soup yesterday modified from this recipe. It was SO good that Brian (and Lucy) had second helpings last night and I can’t WAIT for lunch time to enjoy some more of it at work. I’m hoping it also freezes well. I modified it by adding greek yogurt instead of milk, and greek yogurt cream cheese + 1 cup of extra old cheddar instead of the 2 cups of cheddar. I also added extra veggies, because they were all getting pureed anyway!

This month had a busy start, but halfway through it now, I am loving it. This is always my favourite month (+ October) in Halifax. Growing up, I never thought much of fall. In Calgary, the leaves just don’t change colour like they do here on the east coast. There is something really special about this season here, and I’m excited to embrace it this year before we are buried under 6 feet of snow in January. 🙂

Linking up with Kristin for Stuff & Things and Amanda @ Running with Spoons for Thinking out Loud.