Can You Stay Happy?

How often do you stop to think about what makes you happy?

I can tell you that before taking part of 100 days of Happy challenge, I did not. Just pushing through the daily grind is what I was doing.

In August a fellow blogging friend at https://practicallyminimal.com, posted on her Instagram account about this challenge she was starting and invited people to join her in this journey.

And so I DID!

So what exactly was it?

I liked the sounds of it but needed more info. So I checked out the website http://100happydays.com/ and here is what I learned:

*You need to find a picture a day to represent something that made you happy that day. Pick a platform to share it on, ie. Facebook, Instagram, etc and post the picture with a hashtag for the challenge to track your posts.

*The statistic of how many people complete the challenge is staggeringly low. A whopping 21%. Well that in itself is slightly depressing.

After reading more, the whole thing immediately resonated with me and I knew it was something I had to do. I was going to make sure I made it into that 21 percentile!

As I have embraced the motto of living your best life moving into my 40’s, I felt this was exactly what I needed to do to honor that.i mean why wouldn’t I want to try something to keep me focused on the positive.

All that was left was to sign up and get to posting.

My Experience

Going into this 100 days of happy challenge, I was a little nervous about finishing. I am more of a starter. Not so great at finishing. I mean 100 days is a huge commitment.

And honestly I am just not that positive in general. Some people it comes a little more natural too. I literally have to WORK at being positive so finding something that made me happy every day was going to be challenging for sure. Even more of a reason to get to it!

In the beginning of August I started posting to my Instagram account using the hashtag #100happyfoxxyafter40. I invited anyone to join and my cousin whom I find a lot of strength from joined in a few days later. It was nice to have someone to share the experience with and support.

I normally posted around my bed time each night. It is how I kept the routine. And I was able to reflect on my day.

Some days were just plain hard to think about something that made me happy. I didnt want to just throw something generic up there. I really wanted it to represent my day. But we all have bad days so forcing myself to think of the ray of light in a dark day was probably the best part of the challenge.

Other days it was easy. A lunch with a friend. Something that my kids did to make me laugh or make me proud. Accomplishing something.

Challenges

The hardest part was actually remembering to take a picture. Or finding a picture that represented what filled me with joy that day.

When I was on vacation in NYC I didnt post. But I wasn’t going to let that stop me. I just posted extra to make up for the days I missed whe. I got back. And I made it about what made me happy on the day I missed.

One day I missed posting all together. I believe it was just a day where I fell asleep immediately and it was a craptastic dsy. I was pretty disappointed in myself. Even the bext day I couldn’t. So I did the challenge an extra day to make up for it.

Overall

I don’t know that I can say it was life changing but I can say that for just over 100 days, I was a happier, more positive person. I like to believe that has carried over. In order to do so, I am still taking the time in my day to find something I am happy about or grateful for.

Being purposeful, reflecting and finding your happy is just about the best way you can honor yourself.

I highly recommend trying out. If you do start the challenge, tell me about it in the comments. You literally have nothing to lose.

Here are a few highlights:

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