Welcome to Litsy!

‘“Feeling right” is about living the life that‘s right for you.‘ This is exactly how I felt about becoming a UPS driver at the advanced age of 48. I‘d spent twenty years in higher education but it just never felt right to me. It‘s hard to explain but becoming a UPS driver felt like coming out of my cocoon and becoming the butterfly I was all along. And THAT‘S why I‘m so happy now!

‘In fact, for both men and women — and this finding struck me as highly significant — the most reliable predictor of not being lonely is the amount of contact with women. Time spent with men doesn‘t make a difference.‘ Huh 🤔

I realize my happy place is snail mail and books! After soul searching, two Covid surges, two jobs and building a new house y‘all are my sanity and I miss you! Can I please be added back to the #litsylove list? I‘m sorry I ghosted for a bit - it took me a little bit to get back to my happy place:)

We need more happiness in our lives, especially today. This book provides actionable steps to increase your happiness, strength to carry on, and ways to uplift others (and therefore yourself).

Although enthusiasm seems easy and undiscriminating, in fact, it's much harder to embrace something than to distain it. It's riskier.
...
Enthusiasm is a form of social courage.
...
A willingness to be pleased requires modesty and even innocence--easy to deride as mawkish and sentimental.

"You're not happy unless you think you're happy...You're happy if you think you're happy."

"The belief that unhappiness is selfless and happiness is selfish is misguided. It's more selfless to act happy. It takes energy, generosity, and discipline to be unfailingly lighthearted, yet everyone takes the happy person for granted. No one is careful of his feelings or tries to keep his spirits high. He seems self-sufficient; he becomes a cushion for others...Because she seemed so happy, they assumed that her behavior was effortless...."

think about feeling good
feeling bad
feeling right
in an atmosphere of growth

anticipate it
savor it as it unfolds
express happiness
recall a happy memory

to make yourself happy
make other people happy
to make other people happy
be happy yourself

The days are long
but the years are short

the ruby slippers
had been on my feet all along

Loving actions
inspire loving feelings

Silence is sometimes
the best reply

#Scarathlon2021 #TeamSlaughter #Challenge2021 #OutstandingOctober #ReadWithUs

I feel like all the right 📚🎧 keep falling into my lap. Maybe it‘s as the saying goes “When the student is ready, the teacher appears”🤨🧐I already have one of the websites set up to look at during some quiet time🤓

🔪: 1

#ReadWithUs #Scarathlon2021 #TeamSlaughter #OutstandingOctober #Challenge2021

Audio-booking my way through the first hour(s) of #ReadWithUs 😏💜

🔪: 1

Book #51: Audiobook 🎧 I always take self help books with a grain of salt - not everything is going to apply to or even work for me, but there are always valuable takeaways. Some of the areas that I found helpful were on relationships and positivity. I can be so negative about things that I once looked forward to or complain… like a lot. This book helped me to be more aware of this. I could see myself coming back to this book.

I plowed right thru this!! I loved her happiness experiment and how she broke up the chapters by each month of the year with her goals for that month. I dont plan on doing my own experiment but I can definitely see how some people would want to do this.

Lunch time was beautiful

Break time. I love working from home bc on my break I can stretch out and read for 10 mins!

Book 93 🙂

I had a great day of reading yesterday for the #24in48 readathon. I finished the tagged book while putting together a challenging Disney puzzle. Hope to finish another great read today.

We bought a Roomba at a discount, and then it sat there for two years because I didn‘t want to take it apart to clean it, and nobody else was willing to do it, either. Then I finally just did it.
Will I sit on my butt and read this book about happiness while I sip wine and a machine vacuums for me? Yes, I think I will.

Loved it !!!!!!

This book is about a woman who literally undertakes a happiness project for an entire year. Every month she focus on a particular area say 'relationships' or 'passion' and creates resolutions around these.
Simple resolutions such as wake up early or express gratitude.
Rating : 4 out of 5

I find any book that makes one self reflect is a good one. I‘m going to do my own Happiness Project now with two of my sisters 💕

So I was at first disappointed in this thinking it would have had more impact had I read it at it publication date when my life was more hectic. But when I quit trying to insert myself into the narrative and just read it for Gretchen‘s year of being cognitive of her own happiness, I found it interesting - and helpful.

Got this one at a LFL and it‘s marked up but I do like this statement a lot!

OK. I only had 2ish hours left but I was just done. I hadn't been paying attention most of the time anyway. For me this audiobook would have been much better if it were abridged. I think I would have totally enjoyed it in book form, but it was too long (for me) in audio format.

Started this today and am really enjoying it.

#reading

Well I *was* #audioknitting...Until this guy plopped right onto my lap. He NEVER does this so I'm just #audiosnuggling now. 😂

#catsoflitsy

#24in48
Did about an hour of audio knitting with the tagged book.

Yale University is offering a free course online - The Science of Well-Being - that teaches you how to be happier. - https://www.coursera.org/learn/the-science-of-well-being #KeepLitsyPositive
PC- https://www.small-heroes.eu/en/bloeikaart-plant-happiness.html

#wondrouswednesday
@Eggs
- Me (on the right) with my friend, on a recent girl‘s night.... a Cycle Party bar crawl in the cool graffiti/mural district of Wynwood in Miami...
- These 3 describe me as a happy-go-lucky bookseller, fortunate to have lots of wonderful friends!
- I don‘t mind lending... books are just things.... it‘s the words that matter... and it‘s fun to share 💕
Tagging @Tex2Flo @Samplergal 😘

Rubin's happiness strategies are centered around mindfulness & accountability, which sounds like work but I can see how it helps w/happiness awareness. Some parts frustrated me; for example, easy for her to advise throwing money/time at ideas to pursue happiness. I don't have that flexibility in my schedule or budget often, but I can appreciate the idea. The writing was quick & engaging, which made it a fast read, though not a book I would reread.

Listening to Gretchen Rubin‘s podcast, re-reading The Happiness Project and working on my own #20for2020. #goals

I‘ve been meaning to read this for a long time since I enjoy her podcast and her book Better than Before. Fun, quick read

Finally competed this as a part of #NFNov. The books focuses on Gretchen Reuben‘s resolutions, experiments, and findings, over the course of a year. She focuses on goals for each month and works through them. Her happiness project can be different for everyone.
Saint Thérèse of Lisieux wrote, “When one loves, one does not calculate.”
“To be happy, I need to think about feeling good, feeling bad, and feeling right, in an atmosphere of growth.”

#TIL that: “By contrast, I realized, happiness has four stages. To eke out the most happiness from an experience, we must anticipate it, savor it as it unfolds, express happiness, and recall a happy memory.”

This is one of the best takeaways from this book. Need to stretch our happiness to be happy ❣️ #NFNov

#TIL and reminder:
Mindfulness brings many benefits: scientists point out that it calms the mind and elevates brain function, it gives clarity and vividness to present experience, it may help people break unhealthy habits, and it can soothe troubled spirits and lift people‘s moods. It reduces stress and chronic pain. It makes people happier, less defensive, and more engaged with others.

This is slightly difficult for me with a monkey brain #NFNov

#TIL that In his book Happier, Tal Ben-Shahar describes the “arrival fallacy,” the belief that when you arrive at a certain destination, you‘ll be happy. The arrival fallacy is a fallacy because, though you may anticipate great happiness in arrival, arriving rarely makes you as happy as you anticipate. The solution is to enjoy and savory each moment

#NFNov

Pierre Reverdy wrote, There is no love; there are only proofs of love.” Whatever love I might feel in my heart, others will see only my actions.

#NFNov

#TIL The repetitive activity of walking, studies show, triggers the body‘s relaxation response and so helps reduce stress; at the same time, even a quick ten-minute walk provides an immediate energy boost and improves mood—in fact, exercise is an effective way to snap out of a funk.

Good advice for me to walk with the dog, despite the cold weather #NFNov

#TIL that “What you do every day matters more than what you do once in a while.”

Will try to remember this in my daily routine. #NFNov

Another reminder: In marriage, it‘s less important to have many pleasant experiences than it is to have fewer unpleasant experiences, because people have a “negativity bias”; our reactions to bad events are faster, stronger, and stickier than our reactions to good events.”

#TIL according to Aristotle, “Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence.” Epicurus wrote, “We must exercise ourselves in the things which bring happiness, since, if that be present, we have everything, and, if that be absent, all our actions are directed toward attaining it.”

#NFNov
How many TILS can we post in a day? @rsteve388

Not read but this seems fit for #chasingrainbows . It tells of the author‘s year-long commitment to work on improving her happiness. Image from the author‘s website.

#ayupaugust

“Junk attracts more junk. If you clear it off, it‘s likely to stay clear.”

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

1. Going to Maine to visit my friend and see my favorite comedian (Gary Gulman)
2. My hair- the cut and color and shine
3. I'm proud of the effort I put into my relationships and keeping in touch.
4. @Applenabe @Mtroiano

'A little reading is all the therapy a person needs sometimes'

#booktherapy #readingtherapy

I am at a point in my life where I am trying to focus on creating more happiness— so of course this book made it onto my reading list. 💙 I really enjoyed some of the insights and thoughts that the author produced during her year of happiness research, and I would say it‘s worth a causal read. 📖 #TheHappinessProject #GretchenRubin #Happiness