My June Happiness Project Update

My June Happiness Project Update

In late May, I laid out my plan for June, and since we're midway through I thought I'd give you all and update. I know you've been waiting on the edge of your seat! Here are my goals and a quick update on each:

• The word of the month is HEALTHY: initially, I wasn't sure about having a word of the month. I didn't have one the first time I did a Happiness Project year, and I thought it might ground me. So far, it's not adding much for me. Honestly, I forgot my word. I think I'll write it on a post it and put it on my work computer screen to remind myself of what the main goal is this month: healthy.

• No sugar: Gretchen Rubin talks about two types of people: those who are moderators and those who abstain. I think she uses a more graceful second word, but you get the idea. I tend to be an abstainer because once I give myself permission to have "a little" of something (like sugar), I can go hog-wild and next thing I know I'm having it every day. I do much better with saying NONE and holding myself to that. In this case, true to form, I've been bending the rules. I started off with nothing, not honey, nothing sweet. Then I found that I'd stopped drinking liquids. Now I'm allowing myself honey and coconut sugar. Also? I made the most delicious cake (gluten free! dairy free! you'd never know it!) ever and ate it for breakfast. I subbed coconut sugar for the sugar and ground it up in place of the powdered sugar, too. I think I could do better, but overall I'm eating less sugar so I call this a work in progress.

 I caught my little imp Jaxon in the corner of the frame after he'd put his head up for a sniff of lemon polenta cake and then lowered his head to lick his chops. Sneaker!

• Do things I like: this is going very well! It's sort of funny to have to remind myself to do things I like, but I can get stuck in a rut of watching TV instead of getting out into the world to do the things that I enjoy. This has been a great reminder to think about what I like to do (not just what I think I should like to do) and do it. Examples include baking the cake above, taking the dogs on adventures to dog parks located father away than our usual one, reading novels by our gym's pool, and meeting up with a friend for wine.

 Cairo and Jaxon, post park and tired as can be.

• More movement: this is going ok, but just ok. I would like to be doing yoga, but I'm not since I still can't fully use my left arm or breathe deeply after my kickball party accident. But, this reminder is encouraging me to seek out walks during lunch at work and also to enjoy my walks with the dogs rather than seeing them, as I sometimes do, as a chore. I remind myself that this is good for me, too! I have a bike ride date in mind for soon, too.

 Dog Park Chic.

• Smile often: this might strike you as funny because I tend to be a smiley person. However, this is a reminder to myself to react with kindness (toward others and self) where I might get defensive or go into lawyer mode. I've found myself smoothing out the forehead wrinkle in favor of a smile often this month.This is a practice I'd like to keep working on-this month and beyond! I can get pretty intense, and this reminds me to stay gentle.

July will be about LEISURE (delight in organization, act carefree, under-react in the moment, meditate), but I'll be sure to close out June with you, too.  My plans for delighting in organization include creating a useable command center to organize myself (meal plans, bills, stuff) that is actually sustainable and to just give in for my love of color-coding and relish in it all. The middle two are the most difficult so I'll save those for a separate post, and the third will hopefully include morning yoga once I get some PT on my side/shoulder situation as well as copious Judge Your Neighbor and Judge Your Beliefs worksheets.

I know a few of you are playing along-please update me on how your first month is going! And thanks for indulging all of the iPhone selfies this post. I'm trying to bring you along with me.