#acthappy

My happiness is attached to my weight. It always has been. While I know weight loss is essential for optimal health, I fixate on the number on the scale for far too many reasons. I will not put on a swim suit, rarely wear shorts, constantly feel uncomfortable in my own skin, and far too often compare myself to skinnier, more attractive women around me.

I randomly started following author Gretchen Rubin on Facebook; I can not even recall how or why now, but I did and I am so happy that I did. Reading her daily motivations led me to her book, The Happiness Project, which led me to her podcasts, which then led me to her book, Better than Before. I am only on April in The Happiness Project, but my notes are growing and I am making a more conscious effort in all that I do.

The piece of advice that resonates with me: “Act the way you want to feel”.

I want to feel Happy, so why not put forth a happy attitude in all that I do? Because it’s HARD. And as you saw before, when something is hard I just do not want to do it. But now I know I need to do this. I need to get my life back on track and feel better about myself and live a happier, more satisfying life.

Today begins Act Happy Week, starting with Let’s Laugh Day. It’s a proven fact that even if you aren’t actually happy, acting happy and finding things to laugh about raises the levels of serotonin (a feel-good chemical) in your brain. In fact, every minute of laughter produces approximately $10,000 worth of good chemicals in your body. It reduces stress, eases pain, promotes a boost of oxygen in your blood, releases antibodies, moves around lymph fluids, and improves your immune system function.

It’s also National Poultry Day. For some reason, rubber chickens are funny.  Not so much when they end up on your plate at a banquet though. Chickens were one of the first animals domesticated by prehistoric people. They can lay eggs all year long, their feathers are good for lots of purposes, and their meat can be prepared a zillion different ways.

For my Catholic friends, today is St. Joseph’s Day. Apparently, we’re supposed to wear red, orange or purple today. I started out with a red shirt on but realized it had a stain in an awkward place so I changed into a blue one. When I worked in a book store, people used to come in looking forSt. Joseph statues all the time. They would bury them in the back yard, upside down, to help them sell their houses. I have no idea if that works, but people swore it did.