Wednesday, September 12, 2018

The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin


Title: The Happiness Project
Author: Gretchen Rubin
Pages: 301
Finished: September 11, 2018

First Sentence: I always vaguely expected to outgrow my expectations.

Summary: Gretchen Rubin decides to take a year to become happier. She does so by coming up with resolutions that she believes will make her happier in various aspects of her life. Throughout the book, she also comes up with Happiness truths as she shares her journey.

Thoughts:  This was the right time to read this book for me. I've been seeing a therapist for almost three years now, and we've been really working at being more positive. I've been studying a ton of personal development books to help me find that positivity and that happiness. So instead of reading this book and immediately getting defensive, I found myself nodding my head to much of what Gretchen was saying. Many of the things she tried are things I've been working on too. How I interact with my husband and my kid. How I interact with other people. How I treat myself and my home. Most of it was in line with what she was saying. I'd already come up with many of these things by myself (with the help of my therapist and other books.) My goal wasn't to become happy, but it was a nice by product.

The one area that I was frustrated with was when she mentioned that she had no interest in meditating or going outside. To the point where she decided not to do them. And I guess the main reason that left me with a bad taste in my mouth is that I fought both meditation and going outside too, but once I started, boy did I feel better. In fact, I try to get every single person in my household outside every day because we all do better when we go outside. Meditation has been crucial to helping me focus too. That being said, I have a feeling she does meditate at times, just differently than I do. And that's okay.

In general, it was a nice enough book. I didn't really get much out of it other than the self acknowledgement that what I'm doing for myself has worked for other people too.

Read for my non-fiction challenge.

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