Track Your Happiness

A few weeks back, I listened to a Ted Radio Hour show on happiness.  (I think Ted Radio Hour is my new favorite thing.  Yesterday I listened to another show on Believers and Doubters, which was also interesting, although not as good). Anyway, the happiness one had four great points to make, four things these Ted talkers believed really influence happiness:

• staying in the moment 
• slowing down
• less stuff, and
• gratefulness.

I absolutely loved the challenge toward these four things.  I've since stopped doing things on my phone while also doing other things.  For example, I used to take my phone to read or check email while nursing.  I stopped and I started just staring at my daughter, looking at her chubby little hands and listening to her sweet sighs.  Slowing down is really hard for me, so that'll be one that I have to fight for regularly.  "Less stuff" has been a continual goal for both Isaac and me, and though we regularly donate things to Goodwill, we still have way more than we'd like:  too many clothes we don't use, too many gadgets in our kitchen that only get used once in a blue moon, way too many toys for our girls.  But we'll keep on trying.

My favorite thing said about gratefulness was David Steindl-Rast's idea that we can't be grateful for everything, violence or suffering, but we can always be grateful for the opportunity.  That's been a really interesting challenge.  I'm thankful for the opportunity to wipe my three-year old's gross poopy butt because I know soon enough she won't need me to do much for her.  I'm thankful for the opportunity of someone talking non-stop while I'm trying to get work done because it gives me an opportunity to become a better listener even when I don't want to.

The most lasting effect of listening to this show was that I signed up for a project mentioned called Track Your Happiness. After signing up, I received around three texts everyday for a couple of weeks asking questions about my daily activities.  I answered my last text today and this is what it tracked:

You can zoom in on your browser if you want to see with more detail, but these are some of the things it reports:

• my happiest day is Sunday
• my happiest place is church, with the playground as a close second
• my happiest activities are 
1. praying/worshipping/meditating (it counts them as one)
2. playing
3. playing the piano
4. sleeping

It also tracked things like my happiness depending on how much sleep I got, who I was talking to or how focused I was.  I'm glad the questions are over because it was a bit of a pain to stop and answer questions throughout my day, but I'm glad to have these results.  Of course it wasn't perfectly accurate because self-reported things never are, but it has allowed me to see some things to consider.

If the report says that I'm the least happy when I'm commuting and watching TV, I'd like to seriously consider how far away I decide to live from work and places I will visit often (like church or parks).  I want to fight the urge to veg in front of shows that aren't that funny or interesting in the first place.

I really encourage you to track your happiness, to listen to that Ted Talk, to know yourself better, and to make the difficult choices that make life better.