Happiness!!!

Hello Everyone -

I'm blogging to you live from jury duty at the L.A. County Criminal Courthouse! Don't worry, I'm not ignoring any important proceedings, but am only waiting to see if I will get called for a trial, or "panelled" as they so saucily put it. Everyone here is praying for the clock to hit 5:00 without being panelled, and the time goes by slooooooowly. It's kind of like being in an airport when you can't get any real work done, so there's not a lot to do - and they won't let you go on Facebook!!

Anyway, surfing around, I was noticing how many instructions for being happy there are on the Internet these days; websites, articles, etc. I think that this would be a really easy thing to be cynical about, but I actually think that it's pretty great! If there is any useful thing that all of this social networking can accomplish, it would be to help people learn from others and lead happier lives. Again, cynicism, cynicism; but it could possibly be helpful sometimes.

Anyway, whether it works or not, one of my favorite blogs is called "The Happiness Project". It's by a woman named Gretchen Rubin who decided to try (almost) every suggestion that she had ever heard about how to be happy for one year and see how it all works out for her. She really does have some good suggestions (my favorite so far is, "Anything worth doing is worth doing badly"), but I also like this site because the writing is good, she really has some interesting thoughts about what happiness actually is, and I often get a laugh out of it.You can see it here:

http://www.happiness-project.com/happiness_project/

Another thing I saw recently that was interesting was a study about how spending money relates to happiness. As you can imagine, the basic upshot was that money can't buy happiness, but there were some exceptions. Buying a decent car seemed to do good things for a lot of people! I liked one list in particular though. It shows the (relatively) inexpensive purchases that made people the happiest. I thought it was a good list, but also that Em would appreciate the last one : )

You can read more here:

http://tierneylab.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/29/when-money-buys-happiness/

"The items appearing much more on the ‘happy’ than on the ‘expensive’ lists were:

• Sharing meals with friends, “jolly dinner parties”, eating out socially. The networking necessities for the hyper-social primate.

• Alcohol: beer, wine, rum, “bar tabs”, “Château d’Yquem (Vintage 1967)”.

• Bicycles of all sorts: commuting bikes, street bikes, time-trial bikes, mountain bikes. Much more happiness-provoking than most cars.

• Camping gear, summer camps for kids, sports equipment (especially running, tennis, skiing, swimming, surfing). Physical activity is the most potent anti-depressant, and outdoor activities are the most natural forms of fun.

• Pets, especially dogs and horses; vet care, animal charities, “free orange kitten”, “organic food for cats”, aquaria, bird feeders. Very high happiness for the money – especially dogs, which have been selectively bred to be good human companions for 15,000 years.

• Hobbies: equipment for cooking, gardening, sewing, knitting, woodworking, pottery, photography, art, etc. Natural ways to enjoy and display skills and creativity.

• Adult education classes (art, music, dance, foreign languages, gymnastics, massage)

• Church, congregation membership, charity. Spirituality and altruism were cheap and rewarding.

• Books: High information density per pound; excellent value.

• Music: CDs, iPods, stereo systems, speakers, live concerts, instruments, lessons.

• Artwork, including paintings, prints, lithographs, especially from local artists

• Leisure software, especially for social networking (email, Facebook) and computer games.

• Quality beds, “excellent mattress”. Sleep quality is a major predictor of night-time comfort and day-time energy."

We'll get a new mattress soon, Sweetheart!

One more hour - keeping my fingers crossed : )