What I'm Reading // The Happiness Project.

Back in January 2013, I started reading The Happiness Project.

I finally finished reading it just last month, December 31st to be exact (it was one of my four simple goals before 2014!) ... I am really, I mean really, really bad at reading books. I become easily distracted by the internet, television, life and forget all about them.

The book itself was fantastic. It was easy to read and even easier to relate to. If you haven't read it before, go buy it, its well worth the read!

After finishing the last few pages, I decided that I wanted to read the book again and try my best to follow along in 2014. I may not follow everything exactly, might make a few changes along the way, but I think it will be good thing. This time around, I decided that I was going to read a chapter at the beginning of each month - there are twelve chapters, one for each month with different resolutions. My hope is that by only reading one chapter, it will be easier to follow along and to be successful in my own happiness project!

For example, January's resolution for Gretchen (the book's author), was to boost her energy. And to accomplish her resolution of more vitality, she decided to focus on both the physical and mental aspects of energy. For her, these included:

01 // go to sleep earlier
02 // exercise better
03 // toss, restore, organize
04 // tackle a nagging task
05 // act more energetic

Pretty simple when you break it down. As I read each chapter, I also decided to make notes about what I related to, found helpful, wanted to focus my efforts on, etc. I will admit, I have a short term memory. Taking notes will help keep me on track, plus it will give me something to blog about!

Have you read this book before? Thoughts?

How to Survive a Cranky Day.

Source: mindbodygreen.com via Chelsea on Pinterest

We all have cranky days. Right? 

Some days when I wake up in the morning, especially if I am feeling overtired, I will often find myself feeling cranky for most of the day. When I am cranky, I am also easily irritated by stupid little things that I should know better than to let them get to me. I really don't like it when I get like this because I find myself taking it out on the ones I love -- I'm sorry boyfriend..!

I recently discovered a few insights from the MindBodyGreen website on how to deal with my crankyness in a positive manner, without damaging too many relationships along the way. I found these tips to be very helpful, so I thought I would share them.

6 Tips to Survive a Cranky Day:

1. Notice how you feel, be the observer and watch the emotions flow through you and how they affect you physically.


2. Avoid judging yourself.


3. Don't pretend to be happy and put on a fake smile, that only suppresses the feelings, bottling them up causing you to have a massive blow up at someone who least deserves it. 


4. Avoid people as much as you can. 


5. Go into the backyard or the nearest park and scream and yell. 


6. Say thank you.

The first three tips describe me to a tee...

1. When I am overtired and cranky, it really affects me physically. I get headaches, I'm clumsy, and my muscles tense up which in turn triggers the neuralgia to flair up in my face. And when my face flairs up, it triggers even more emotions. Knowing that my negative thoughts affect my body has been a huge help because I have learned how not to let myself get to that point. But, I am not perfect and sometimes I do let my cranky behavior get the best of me. 


2. When I am irritated, I am always really hard on myself. As mentioned, when I am overtired, I can become very clumsy, especially when cooking dinner. Over the years, many fingers have been burned, and dishes or food have been dropped. When this happens, I curse and always blame myself for anything that goes wrong. Learning not to judge myself is something I still need to work on. 


3. Massive blow up, oh yes. That usually happens after number two. Thankfully, when I have these moments, my boyfriend is really amazing and knows how to calm me down and make me feel less cranky so that I can get past it. 

To read more about how to survive a cranky day, head over to the full article here. I found this article to be very insightful, so I highly recommend that you read it. 

What do you do to survive a cranky day?