Last week I wrote a post considering the question of whether seeking happiness actually makes us miserable, as some maintain. (Spoiler alert: I don't think so.) I was moved by the comments to that post, and all week I've been thinking about this one: In the 1960s, there were some very popular and influential books that accused American...
Happiness
Does Seeking Happiness Make Us Miserable?
Over the weekend I noticed an essay on Vox titled America is obsessed with happiness--and it's making us miserable. Obviously, given all that I have written about happiness here, including my own efforts to do a happiness project, the title jumped out at me. Even without reading the essay, that title gave me a prick of discomfort...
Happiness Project: Month 2--Making A Home
The first month of my happiness project may have fizzled out, but that doesn't mean I'm giving up. Rather, I spent the weekend rethinking what I'm doing with this project in general, and what I'm doing in the second month in particular. One of the things that really attracted me to the idea of a happiness...
Happiness Project: Month 1 Wrap-Up
Full disclosure: the first month of my happiness project did not go so well. I was hoping to start my six-month project out with a bang and create the momentum I'd need to carry me through the rest of it. Instead, I fizzled out about halfway through the first month. Here's a look at my resolutions,...
September's First Autumn Weekend
While it may have officially become autumn just last week, here in our part of Sweden it's felt like fall since early August. Still, we wanted to herald the new season with an outdoor weekend--and a trip to an apple orchard.
Happiness Project: A New Page for Links
I'm recovering from a long weekend of hosting friends from out-of-country and a short trip to Åland, a group of Swedish-speaking Finnish islands (an archipelago!) that lie between Sweden and Finland. I'm also battling a cold while desperately trying to catch up with office work. I find it so much harder to recover and to catch...
Happiness Project: Month 1 Check-in
So I'm approximately a week into my happiness project, and I'll be honest: it's not going so well. As you can see from the picture above, I'm doing so-so at keeping my resolutions. Some things, like lying with my legs up the wall and writing a to-do list, have been easy to do; while other...
Happiness Project: Month 1 Resolutions
For the first month of my new happiness project, I'm focusing on my general health and wellness. I think it's important to boost this project with an infusion of energy and vitality--something I don't always feel as the mother of two young children with a third on the way. So my resolutions this month will be focused...
Why September is Great for Projects
While I'm preparing tomorrow's post about making resolutions for my happiness project, I wanted to share this wonderful, timely piece with you. It comes from The Pool, a smart web publication from Britain that my friend Sophia turned me on to. (It's definitely worth subscribing to their email list!).
Happiness Project: Focus Areas
A few weeks ago I wrote about starting a happiness project. I'm putting together a mini-project to begin next week (I would have preferred September 1, but after our recent transatlantic trip I'm a bit behind). For reasons I'll share later, a six-month project fits my life better than a year-long one, so I'm going to start by...