In Pursuit of Happiness

Just after the New Year began I started, in earnest, to imagine new possibilities for myself. I decided that I needed to stop acting and living as if this is all there is; this is all I can do. Not that my life is a bad one, but I had been feeling stuck. Dissatisfied and stuck.

This school year has been a particularly difficult year for me, and I have seriously questioned how much longer I can be a part of a profession that is so undervalued and disrespected. It is getting harder and harder to be a part of an institution where the onus for education is put on teachers, instead of shared with parents and students. Remaining a teacher to me feels a bit like being complicit in the unraveling of education, akin to what it would have been like to be in banking when they were selling bogus mortgages.

So I thought it was time to get serious about making a change. Or changes. I came up with a new writing plan, started doing affirmations and meditations again, and I set out to find some tools to help me. But until then, when the power of intention brings me that something else, what could I do to be happier now? Interestingly enough, I happened upon The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin (in Anthropologie of all places) when I was out with Jonathan and Amanda, and it spoke to me. "When the student is ready, the teacher appears,” right?

Well, I love it. I am learning some new things (e.g., the opposite of happiness is not depression; it is unhappiness), being reminded of others, and taking notes as I go—collecting little gems and mantras and notes to myself on a bright and sunny note card cum book mark. Act the way you want to feel. Tackle a nagging task. Don’t expect praise. Enjoy now. I just finished March. Can’t wait for April’s bits of wisdom.

Click on the link above or download a sample on your iPad or Kindle and I’m sure you’ll want to buy it as soon as you finish “Getting Started,” especially if you, like me, could use a little more happiness in your life-- without setting off for Italy, India, or Indonesia. Says Gretchen Rubin, “I didn’t want to reject my life. I wanted to change my life without changing my life, by finding more happiness in my own kitchen.”

Sounds worth trying, no?