Another great weekend in pictures

                                                                                                                             

A really good place for a Monday

I'm in a really good place at the moment, and I don't mean sitting in my office (although the view this morning is pretty nice - I know the picture is kind of blurry, now you know what it's like to see like I do).

Things are really working out for me - My house is clean, my bed is comfy, my job is great and I'm at peace with my family. My friends are all happy, healthy and some of them are very much in luuuuurve, which is wonderful. I'm loving going to the gym, pilates rocks my world, weekly meditation group keeps me zen, floating around the hydrotherapy pool keeps me warm.

For the first time in years, I'm relaxed enough to wear pants (anyone who knows me well knows I never wear pants!), I don't feel the need to get dressed up to go to the shops, and I'm very much enjoying being a lot more relaxed in my attitude to everything.

I hope things are going as well for you too.

My Happiness Project

I love having a few projects on the go, and what better project than one designed to make me happy? I've been reading Gretchen Rubin's site The Happiness Project (here) and I like the idea. Gretchen has another site, The Happiness Project Toolbox (here) which has some great tools for planning your own 'Happiness Project'.

Last year I decided that May was 'Me Month' and spent the whole month doing things to make me happy, which was great, but why stop at one month? For me this isn't about crazy resolutions I won't keep, it's about small adjustments and habits I'd like to form over time...except the shark diving, I'm hoping that doesn't become a habit. I've got a few projects currently on the go, and will keep updating with new ones as I progress.

A few of the things I'm working on for my Happiness Project:

Healthy Heather
I've been working on being healthier by doing pilates and personal training once a week and eating a lot better than usual. From here I'd like to get to:

• PT & Pilates once a week each
• 2 extra gym sessions (even if one of them is just floating around the hydrotherapy pool)
• Eating healthier all the time
• Drinking lots more water, and lots less wine (during the week)

Happy Heather
Who would have guessed that someone who hated writing would enjoy writing a blog so much? I want to keep up the blogging, and as mentioned in last week's post, I'd like to clean out my wardrobe - nice tidy spaces make me happy. I'd like to spend more time with friends who make me happy, and less time worrying about the ones that stress me out.

Handy Heather
I haven't really been cooking much over the last few years, so I'm working on learning at least one new recipe a week...I'm yet to poison anyone so far.

Harmonious Heather
I've been loving attending my weekly meditation group, so my aim is to keep this up, and to remember to take a few moments to 'chill out' every once in a while.

Heroic Heather
Um, how does diving with Great White Sharks sound?

Hidden Heather
I'd like to be more of a 'hidden Heather', unfortunately my habit of over-sharing seems to prevent that...sometimes it's not necessary to tell everyone, everything...I'd like to work on sharing a little less. I'd also like to start making eye contact with people again, not quite sure when I stopped doing this, but it must make me look really shifty - next time we talk make sure I'm making eye contact.

Hopeful Heather
I'd really like to make and stick to a budget...how hard can it be right? I'll post a little more about this on Friday (pay day!)...may as well start fresh with some money in the account!



Do you have any Happiness Projects on the go or any suggestions for projects to try?

Thought for a Monday

In 1820, English writer Sydney Smith wrote a letter to an unhappy friend, Lady Morpeth, in which he offered her tips for living as happy life:

1. "Live as well as you dare. 
2. Go into the shower-bath with a small quantity of water at a temperature low enough to give you a slight sensation of cold, 75 or 80 degrees. 
3. Amusing books. 
4. Short views of human life—not further than dinner or tea.
5. Be as busy as you can. 
6. See as much as you can of those friends who respect and like you. 
7. And of those acquaintances who amuse you.
8. Make no secret of low spirits to your friends, but talk of them freely—they are always worse for dignified concealment. 
9. Attend to the effects tea and coffee produce upon you. 
10. Compare your lot with that of other people. 
11. Don’t expect too much from human life—a sorry business at the best. 
12. Avoid poetry, dramatic representations (except comedy), music, serious novels, melancholy, sentimental people, and everything likely to excite feeling or emotion, not ending in active benevolence.
13. Do good, and endeavour to please everybody of every degree. 
14. Be as much as you can in the open air without fatigue.
15. Make the room where you commonly sit gay and pleasant. 
16. Struggle by little and little against idleness. 
17. Don’t be too severe upon yourself, or underrate yourself, but do yourself justice.
18. Keep good blazing fires.
19. Be firm and constant in the exercise of rational religion. 
20. Believe me, dear Lady Georgiana.”

I'm quite partial to 1,5,6,7 and 13...oh, and don't forget 18 - there aren't enough good blazing fires in my life!

What rings true for you?

Things my grandma can do

Last night I sat on a friends couch and attempted embroidery. I've seen a fair bit of embroidery in my time and didn't imagine it could be too difficult. As it turns out, I may have overestimated my craft skills, much like the time I stuck my hand to the bench with a gluegun. Embroidery is hard. This revelation got me thinking about that much loved topic - things my nanna can do that I can't. The list as it currently stands is:

• Embroidery
• Sewing
• Write thankyou notes in a timely fashion
• Bake
• Cook well in general
• Throw dinner parties (see above)
• Play cards
• Make beds with hospital corners
• Make small children love her
• Chastise above children and still remain loved
• Magically fix any illness with jelly
• Coordinate her shoes with her outfit
• Make a bonza cup of tea
• Know the right action for any situation
• Remember the names of all her grandchildren and great grandchildren
  
• Make my pathetic attempts at any of the above seem succesful

But then, she's had a lot more practise than me...