Happiness-- Day 1

I recommend everyone to go watch this video.

He says that the secret to becoming happier is in 5 steps:

• 3 new gratitudes
• journaling
• exercise
• meditation
• random acts of kindness

If these things are done for 2 minutes, 21 days in a row, then the brain is supposed to be retrained to be happier.

Well, I already exercise, so that's one less task for me.

I already journal, but most of my posts are not happy. The goal here is to reflect on a happy moment of the day because it will help you to relive the experience.

Meditation will help to focus on the task at hand. I need help with that for sure. I get stressed easily about major assignments.

For a random act of kindness, you can email someone in your social circle and thank them for being awesome.


Well I'm all set to try it! Let's see how it works.

Today's gratitudes:

1. Being well enough to go back to the gym. After being away in Denver, I only got to go to the gym once before I got sick. Was sick for a week and a half...
2. Got the chance to meet my neighbors. The fire alarm went off again, and I met the nice woman who lives down the hall from me and a boy who I think is her son. We chatted for a little bit, and she told me that if I ever needed her to give me a ride somewhere, she would be more than happy to give me one.
3. Having the day off school. It was nice to sleep in today and have the day to work on my assignments.

Today I will reflect on my wonderful friendship with Laura. I called her up today to take a break from my strat presentation. She asked me if I wanted to go down to NYC to meet up with her around my birthday!!

"That way," she told me,  "if Ashley schedules another Yankee Swap on your birthday again this year, you don't have to go and you can tell her that you have other plans."

And then, I was just off thinking. For such a long time now, I have wanted to see Chicago on Broadway. Chicago is my favorite musical, and my favorite thing to do ever is to see a musical on Broadway. What better way to spend my birthday than to see my favorite musical on Broadway with one of my best friends?

For my random act of kindness, I told Laura that she was awesome and that I was so glad that we were friends.

Because really, she is. She knows that I haven't had the best record with birthdays, so now she's going out of her way to make sure this birthday will be a happy one.

Yay! So excited. Hopefully all the plans come together for this trip! I'll be sure to tell Cameron, my Birthday Buddy, about it. If she wants to come with, then we both will have a very happy birthday for sure.

<3