Things you can do today to improve your happiness

I have a tendency toward depression, and while I try not to talk about it too much, I find that keeping things inside makes everything feel worse. I was having something of a bad time this weekend, and did a few of my tried-and-true happiness boosting tricks, and thought I would write some of them down here.

It mostly comes down to do something. I'm not going to suggest that you get out and exercise. I don't do that, either. But I do find that just getting up and actually doing something will improve things tremendously.

Clean something. A drawer, a closet, the bathroom, the kitchen sink. Some happiness gurus suggest that just making your bed will improve your whole day, or there is the Fly Lady axiom of cleaning your kitchen sink as the last thing you do every day. I don't always make the bed, and while I don't leave dirty dishes lying around, having a sparkling sink doesn't do a lot for me. What helps me is throwing stuff away. It's really hard for me to do, but going through a drawer and tossing useless stuff, or cleaning out a pantry shelf and throwing away expired food makes me feel like I've accomplished something.

Also, it drives me nuts to have a bunch of stuff on my computer desktop, or have my email inbox full of junk. I try to clean both my desktop and my inbox every day. It makes me less crazy.

Eat something. Even if you aren't hungry, don't forget to eat, and pay attention to what you eat if you have a tendency toward low blood sugar. I found that out the hard way a couple of weeks ago when, stressed and upset, I had chocolate milk and a granola bar for breakfast and nearly passed out at the beauty salon.

Sell something on EBay. I was cleaning out a closet and found a twenty year old "Epilady" that I used maybe once. I saw that the same item was selling on eBay for around twenty five dollars. I priced mine at $24.95 and it sold within a couple of hours, and now I have some money in my Paypal account to do something fun, like buy breakfast at Wendy's on my way to work.

Make something. I have an Etsy store, so I have an outlet for selling the things I make. You can do that, too, but even if you don't sell what you make, the act of making something is worthwhile and will boost your spirits. Last night I had an idea of making a beaded badge holder lanyard. I made it, took photos of it, and posted it on Etsy. Then I posted a photo and the link on my Facebook page, and someone bought it this morning.

Read something inspirational. I spent some time this morning reading David Alchuter's blog and it inspired me to write this blog post. Do NOT read something depressing. I would advise against reading the news. Or you could always look at some cat videos, like this one. Or there's always this one.

Get some free stuff. I love keeping track of the free Kindle book blogs. Keeping my Kindle full of Books makes me feel rich. I don't download every free book, but if it sounds like something I might enjoy, I do. Unless it's a topic that I'm sure I will want to read about, I don't usually download free nonfiction books. I don't need the guilt of seeing them in my library but not reading them.

Hallmark has a "Gold Crown" program where you get points for anything that you buy at a Hallmark store. I don't do much shopping at the Hallmark stores, but I do occasionally, and a couple of times a year I'll get a free coupon for $2 or $3. $2 will buy a package of stickers. It isn't much, but it's something, and I love getting things free. Oh, that reminds me, I filled up a loyalty card at Jason's a couple of weeks ago -- I could go there for a free lunch today! I think I will.

Get on some mailing lists, but only for things you love. Beauty Brands sends out emails showcasing their specials. Occasionally there will be a coupon for a free product with purchase, and a couple of times a year they send out a completely free $5 coupon good on anything in the store. $5 isn't a lot, and I know they do it to get you in the store, but hey, free $5! I got one a couple of weeks ago and bought a small (handbag size) tube of expensive handcream and only had to pay about a dollar for it.

Conversely, get OFF some making lists. If you're getting emails that you consistently delete, get off the list! Or set a rule in your email program that throws it away before you see it. Not having to delete junk mail will save you a few minutes every day, and a lot of aggravation.

Write something. Like this blog post. If you don't have a blog, write in a journal.

Keep track of something. I use Evernote as my adjunct brain. Use your smart phone to take photos of your prescription medications, and mail them to your Evernote account. I did that this morning. Save a conference schedule as a PDF and save it in Evernote. When you pay a bill online, take a screenshot of the receipt and email it to Evernote. It makes me feel efficient and is an easy place to find things, because I invariably get flustered when I'm trying to find something like a schedule or a list of medications. Evernote automatically syncs to any device that you have it on, i.e., iPhone, iPad, computer, etc., so once information is in there, it's available to you anywhere, and it removes some stress from your life.

Get out there and do something.

Things I love today

Food

• Ben & Jerry's Peanut Butter Banana Greek Frozen Yogurt
  
• Orzo with butter and Parmesan cheese
  
• Market Pantry (Target) Lime Margarita Sugar Free Powdered Drink Mix
  
• Panera Bread Asiago bagels
  
• True Lemon
  

I read a book a long time ago that had a character in it who "only ate yellow food," i.e., Twinkies, bananas, macaroni and cheese. I fear I'm falling into the same rut, but I think it's kind of a comfort food thing.

Music

One Republic "Secrets." I rented "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" last weekend from Amazon. It was an okay movie, not great, but this song played a couple of times, and I had to Google it and figure out what it was. I don't think I had ever heard it before, but it plays in my head now all the time.

Books

Greyhound by Steffan Piper. I had noticed when this book came out, but never read it. It was the Kindle Daily Deal today, for $.99, so I got the sample, and before I even finished the sample, I went and bought it. It's a story about an eleven year old boy whose mother needs to get rid of him so she can keep her current boyfriend, so she puts him on a bus from California to Pennsylvania, where he is to live with his grandmother. The story is about his adventures on his cross-country bus trip. It's written in first-person in the boy's voice.

The Amazon Kindle app (check out Pixel of Ink and Books on the Knob for links to free Kindle books)

First day of a long weekend

We got today (Friday) off, making the Memorial Day weekend a four-day weekend; I've got my annual doctor's appointments and tests on Tuesday, so I won't be back to work until Wednesday. I kind of feel like I need a break, so I'm grateful for it, but being away from work always makes me feel nervous, like things are going to blow up while I'm away. I do my best to avoid that, and usually (always) check my email to be sure that things are going smoothly, but it still makes me anxious. I've been out quite a bit lately. I was at a conference for three days last week, then a one-day all day meeting on Wednesday. I've got "Word Camp," the Wordpress user group conference, next weekend, which I'm not thrilled about, but they always have them on weekends, I'm not sure why.

Anyway, I've felt like I've been away a lot, but I've also been learning a lot, so it's a good tradeoff, I guess.

I had a manicure first thing this morning. I'm getting my hair cut tomorrow, and I had originally planned to do them both on the same day, but my manicurist's son is in a track meet on Saturday in Jefferson City, so she asked if I could switch my appointment to today. That was fine, except that she wanted to do it at 9:00 a.m. Which didn't actually turn out to be a problem, because I woke up early and couldn't go back to sleep . . . That seems to happen a lot lately. I usually don't have any trouble going to sleep, but I wake up several times during the night, and inevitably I will wake up at 4:30 or so, lay there for a half hour, and finally get up, giving up on sleep for the rest of the night.

Maybe it's just a part of getting older, I don't know. And also, I lie there and worry, and everything seems so much worse in the middle of the night . . .

So, I had my nails done, got a quick lunch at Einstein Bagels, and came home and worked on some website projects. I was talking to the manicurist this morning about work, and said, what I need to do is write another book. She said, "you need to write another 'Fifty Shades of Gray.'" And I said yeah, or another "Twilight." It could happen.

Interfering

I stopped at Chipotlé tonight on my way home to get something to eat. This restaurant is on two levels (just a couple of steps up, I guess), with an outdoor patio outside the upper level. I got my food, and went up to the upper level to eat. As I got there, I saw a little boy pushing open the door to the patio. I looked around, and there was no one on the patio, and no adults anywhere around.

I'm not good at estimating age, but this guy was little, maybe three years old. I asked him, "where's your mom?" and he just sort of gestured vaguely, and kept on pushing the door. I said, "You shouldn't go outside by yourself," and he said, "I get to pick the table." I said, "Well, you need to wait for your mom or dad.". He ran off, back to the main part of the restaurant, and I looked over and saw him being picked up by a man. The boy looked upset, and who knows what he said to his father. I thought I should say something, so I caught the man's eye and said, "I'm sorry, I just told him he shouldn't go outside by himself," and the man said, "no, no, you're absolutely right," but the woman with him, the boy's mother, I assume, kind of glared at me.

I felt kind of like I shouldn't have said anything, but there were several things that could happen to a little kid in the five or ten minutes it could take his parents to get through the line and join him. He could get his fingers crushed in the heavy door. He could fall on the concrete patio and split his lip. He could run into the street and get run over. And the one I was thinking of when I stopped him from going outside, he could get scooped up by someone who wanted a little boy, and no one would have any idea who happened to him.

So I don't actually feel guilty about saying something, but it did feel a little weird, and I was glad when they finished their meal and left. But not as weird as I would have felt if he'd been snatched, of course.

Icon

I made a new custom icon so if you bookmark my site on the iPhone or iPad, it will have a cool little icon. :)



Here's how to do it: when you're viewing a site in Safari on the iPhone or iPad, hit the little bookmark icon (the square with the arrow in it) and choose "add to home screen." I'm not sure why (at least on my phone) the text label comes up as "Willa's Jour," but you can modify the text to be anything you want.