Happy New Year!
I’m curious to hear how others spend the first day of the year. What do you do? Do you give yourself a “bye” like we have always done? Head to the gym? Make a list of “to do’s”? For us the first day of the year is pretty much a gimme. We slept in, we ate cheese and had wine. To be honest, I didn’t even shower! (Don’t judge – or judge, it’s fine.)
We took down our Christmas tree and replaced the red and green garland in our wall planter with fresh pine from our woods. Check this out and look out Joanna Gaines!
What’s new for 2020?
I’ve got a few things going on that I thought I would share. First, and most importantly (to me), this year, each week I will be randomly pulling a number from 1 to 52 and that will be the list I will fill out in my new happiness journal. (Gifted to me by my lovely daughter!) I thought about starting at the beginning but that seemed too “normal” so, I decided to randomly pull numbers each week (thanks to a number randomizer I found on Google) and fill out that list number.
Second, I’m starting out the year doing Whole30, so I thought I would share my “unofficial” Whole30 update along the way. For those of you who don’t know, Whole30 is a very restrictive elimination diet designed to “Reset your health, habits, and relationship with food, and discover lasting food freedom.” (quote taken directly from their website) – It’s short term, 30 days but for me (I’ve done it before) extremely effective to get me back on track.
My happiness project and Whole30 journey will go well together because I am going to need to dig deep as I work through a month of no cheese and no wine. Wish me luck – er – wish my husband luck!
(re) Finding my voice.
Structuring my message going forward is going to be a work in progress. Do I intertwine my Whole30 journey with my Happiness Project? Do I seperate the two because one is year long and one is only a month? Perhaps I’ll intertwine the two for the month and then do a summary of my Whole30 experience in February. (Excuse the voices in my head, that’s me, thinking out loud – you’ll get that from time to time.)
A little about the 52 Lists of Happiness
Click the link to read much more about the 52 Lists Project – but in a nutshell, Moorea Seal give you 52 different topics “that will help you nurture self-expression and self-development.” (quote directly from the website.) What a great way to highlight (and sometimes search really hard for) the little (or big) things that make us all happy.
I’m not sure if I’ll share every list of mine, maybe I’ll just let you know my thoughts about the list or how I came up with my list, maybe it will depend on the list. Again, finding my voice here. OK, here goes:
How happy are you?
Using my trusty randomizer, the first number I pulled was 20. What a way to start. List number 20 is “List the happiest people you know. ” I started thinking immediately about family members – (Hubs is pretty happy – why not, he’s got me!) Who else? Close family. Distant family. Friends, co-workers. Influencers I follow on Social Media. (Like, really – who’s happier than Chalene Johnson? And if you don’t know who she is, look her up. She’ll make you smile everyday!)
Think about what “happy” is anyway? Merriam-Webster defines happy as: Favored by luck or fortune. Well that’s abstract! Am I right? More than abstract, it’s subjective. We each have our own definition of luck and fortune. And, who am I to judge, based on outer behaviour who is happy and who is fighting their own unhappy gremlins inside. And isn’t happiness an ebb and flow anyway? I don’t believe we can all be happy all the time, no matter what self-help book you read. I actually talked to my mom and sister about this today and asked them if they were happy – by their own definition – they both said yes. 🙂 Happiness for me, are the little things. My warm home, (specifically the fireplace), my dogs, my friends and family – but I digress, I think I’m getting ahead of myself with this list making – this is about happy people that I know. I would put myself on that list, for sure!
There is also an action item that Moorea gives after making each list. The action item for this list is to emulate the behaviors of the happy people you know. She says it may feel uncomfortable, but I’m going to give this one lots of thought and give it a try. So if you see me lip syncing or making crazy fun of myself on instagram – or perhaps goofing around at home, here’s to emulating happiness! (thanks Chalene.)
So What About the Whole30 Thing?
I think I’ll save the details for another post – maybe do a weekly recap. Let’s just say, 3 days in:
- I don’t miss the wine (really, no…really, I’m surprised too!)
- Hubs Made the best “compliant” beef stew for dinner tonight (I’ll share the link when he sends it to me)
- I’m hoping sleep is a little better tonight as the first few days on this is an adjustment for your body, especially if you’ve been overindulging as much as I have lately!
- Thank God the girls (our hens) are coming out of their molt and starting to produce again – I’m going to need a lot of eggs!
We love comments! Send us questions, let us know about your thoughts on the new year, happiness and anything you are doing to better yourself and grow.
With Love,
The Cohns
