I Am Not the Only One - Gretchen Rubin Provides the Proof in the Pudding!

Over the past few weeks, I have been sharing my happiness quest with others and have been surprised by how many of my friends, mostly women, say that they are generally unable to find happiness and are frequently overwhelmed by responsibility and worry.  I have been particularly surprised to learn how many of my female friends found 2010 a very sombre year.  Sorry ladies, but I was so busy being the world champion of negativity that I barely noticed the suffering of others, and for me this is a bitter disappointment as I have long considered compassion and empathy to be my strengths.

My friend, Marilyn, and I have each started a happiness journal and are both finding that the results are immediate.  Gone are our journals where we recorded with some tedium, the misfortune that befell us regularly - replaced by the capturing of only the positive things that happened to us each day.  What a revelation - at first I thought it would be a struggle to come up with several happy moments each day but I have been amazed - my days are full of many, many little happy moments.  Now let's be honest, Marilyn and I have not turned into glib Pollyannas whose happiness journals act as blinders to the realities of modern life.  Rather, we have consciously chosen to reframe our perspective from negative to positive.  It is my hope that these new perspectives will strengthen us and make us more resilient when we are tested by sorrows and hardships that are harder to bear.

My friend Joy and I both had gloomy times in 2010 and so when she was off to Haiti last month on a mission of mercy to those suffering from the cholera epidemic, I gave her a copy of The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin and picked one up for myself at the same time.  Since my daughter's boyfriend had given me Jonathan Haidt's The Happiness Hypothesis for Christmas I thought that I would read some of the other happiness literature.  Haidt's book is based on scientific study and while Gretchen Rubin has certainly done some research, her book will attract a very different audience as she generously shares the elements of her own personal happiness project.  Her's is an easy book to read and you can could easily finish it off in a week-end.  Haidt's book, on the other hand, is so rich that it requires slow savouring.  What is of particular interest to me is that The Happiness Project is the #1 bestselling non-fiction book on the Toronto Star list today.  Yet another revelation - in seeking happiness I AM NOT ALONE - wish I had realized that in December as my world crashed at my feet.

Read my next blog entry to find out what I have learned about why so many of us are not as happy as we could and should be...