When I first was asked to participate in the #100HappyDays challenge, I didn’t think that I could do it. 100 straight days of posting images of one of the things that made me happy that day seemed overwhelming as well as excessive. But when I heard that 71% of the people that started the challenge never finished claiming lack of time as the main reason, I was determined to finish it. I was busy but not too busy to be happy. The first week was easy- highlighting what makes us all happy daily: Love, Food, Family, Work & Friends. But when “real” life challenges started to come into my life such as stress, loss, politics, disappointment or injustice, those were the hardest times to still remain positive and find the rainbow on the rainy days. There were days that I didn’t feel like there was anything to be happy about, but in reality, there was, I was forced to notice them and I’m glad that the challenge helped me change my perspective on thinking happiness could not be experienced on our most difficult days. I started to think of the things I was happy about first rather than all of the negative first towards the end of the 100 days.
Similar to running a marathon on a smaller scale, once I was mid point it was hard to turn back and I wanted to finish the challenge. Moving forward I feel blessed for each day as it comes and not only the days that I attend church or special event but with every little thing in life that I now take notice of what makes me happy. Everyday my boyfriend/bestfriend and I ask each other “what’s the best thing that happened to you today?” as opposed to jumping into complaining about everything that went wrong and that stemmed from the organically gained positivity of this challenge. Towards the end rather than feeling happy once a day I started to feel happy throughout most of the day and not being able to decide which I wanted to post, a great problem to have. Problems seemed small in comparison to what else was going on in the world alongside comparing it with what there was to be grateful about.
I dare you to try it as well, whether you feel comfortable to do it via your social networks or privately in a personal journal, I hope a similar experience is duplicated for you. Thank you to those of you who haven’t deleted or un-followed me because of my daily posts and understood why I was participating. 😉 hoping to inspire others to remind themselves what they may be similarly happy with whether it be at work, at home cooking or a joyous event like a wedding. Within these 100 days I’ve learned to appreciate the people around me even more so as well as feel re-energized in the passion for my work and everyday excitement of starting my own company and glad that I have something to look back to during the challenging days that will inevitably come again. Even the smallest thing like the biscuits from Red Lobster or a rerun of Brown Sugar on TV will bring an easy smile to my face.
Additional details of the 100 Happy Day challenge below, visit 100happydays.com as well for more info!
Here are some of my favorite days of the 100:
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Click the images below for more details of how the challenge works:
For more info: 100happydays.com
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