Cultivating Happiness

Guest Post by Catherine Von Hatten

I subscribe to several blogs, online newsletters, and websites that focus on wellness and personal development. Seems like lately the focus has been on cultivating happiness and a positive attitude on several of these sites. It reminded me of a wonderful book, The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin. Rubin spent a year researching what makes people happy and how to get happier. She spent one month focused on practicing strategies suggested for each of the following.

·      Boosting energy

·      Adding love in your life

·      Setting higher goals

·      Lightening up

·      Playing more

·      Making time for friends

·      Approaching money with happiness in mind

·      Increasing your gratitude

·      Finding passion

·      Being mindful

·      Becoming content

She delved into ideas that have been around for ages and into ideas that have emerged from recent research. Rubin spent the last month of her project trying to integrate what she learned. My goal is to read the book again and be more purposeful about trying some of the strategies myself.

Gretchen Rubin has a new book due out this summer: Happier at Home. If all this intrigues you, check out her website where you can sign up to receive her newsletter and find out about the groups that have formed to put her ideas into practice…happiness-project.com.