Personal Happiness project: week 18

Mmm-kay. The challenge for this week is "Read. Relax. Reinvent yourself." Sounds pretty good. I don't really have much to say about this one. It seems pretty straightforward. I read on the bus to and from work. I guess I relax sometimes. And I've been trying to reinvent myself the last few weeks anyway by doing these challenges. I guess the challenge now is to make them part of me instead of just things I do. So, yep. Here it goes!

Halloween is this week. I still don't know what we're going to dress up as. Our pumpkin/melon aren't looking so good. Kermit is getting really scary looking. I think we'll throw them out soon. Oh well. But! I have a really cute decorating idea for our dirt patch! Stay tuned!

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Personal Happiness project: week 17

Such a fun week! We (not in any particular order) ushered for "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" at BYU, went to the BYU Political Affairs Society Oktoberfest, celebrated a neighbor's birthday, and carved pumpkins with our neighbors. The holidays are upon us and I am loving it! Pictures to follow!

Okay, so this week's challenge is "Quit a bad habit. Quiet your mind." Yikes! Well, seems pretty self-explanatory. I have lots of bad habits, which I won't air out here. It will take awhile to quit them but with the help of President Uchtdorf's words from General Conference a few months ago I may be able to do it. Simply put, his advice is to "Stop it!" He was talking about gossiping mainly but it can apply to anything we are doing that we shouldn't be. The thing I've heard about bad habits though is that instead of just trying to stop cold turkey, you need to replace the habit with something else. Haha, watch the video below. Actually just the first joke will do, but the rest is really funny too.



Anyway, to accomplish both of these challenges, I really just have to put my mind to it and do it. And that's that. Hopefully by the end of the year I will be free of bad habits! (or have developed new ones :) ) Have a great week!

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Personal Happiness project: week 16

Oh man, last week was crazy. There were good times and difficult times. Just glad that it's over! Highlight of the week was going to my friend's baby shower and it basically being a reunion of my last ward. It was so much fun! It was cool to see how we've all grown up since most of us have kids now or are expecting soon. Anyway, on to the challenge!

 This week is "Pray. Paint. Play an instrument." I really need to get better at praying, so this will be a good reminder to work on that. I've been thinking lately that I also need to learn how better to pray and ask for things from Heavenly Father. I can't remember if it was in church or a stake conference a few weeks ago but I really liked what one woman said. She said that when we are going through a trial, instead of praying for our circumstances to change we should pray to change to fit our circumstances. For example, instead of praying for a test or a paper to get cancelled at school, we should ask for our minds to learn the material better and be inspired, or something. Basically, we shouldn't be upset about things we can't change but should find joy in them instead. Easier said than done, but do it anyway!

As for the other challenges, it'll be a busy week, so they may need to wait until I have more time. I still have the materials from my last painting class and a few months ago I bought some online piano lessons that I have yet to do. So these parts of the challenge are doable once I can prioritize them. Good luck! I hope you are having a great week!

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Personal Happiness project: week 15

This week is brought to you by the letter "O" and the challenge is "Own a pet. Observe beauty." Well, this challenge is going to need to be adjusted because we're not allowed to have pets in our apartment. But we are allowed to have plants! Same thing right? So, we will own plants and take care of them and love them and not get kicked out of our apartment.

In the morning on my way to work I try to take notice of the sunrise. They are really cool in this area because the mountains cast shadows on the sky; it looks really cool. This week I will try to focus more on the beauty around me. We live in such a beautiful world; we can't just take it for granted because we'd be super ungrateful. And I just realized that I've only been thinking about observing beauty in nature, but really I should look for beauty in other people and things too. Looks like this one will be a nice excuse to slow down and take in the world around me, looking for the positive, beautiful things instead of focusing on the negative. Well, sounds good. I'll just need to make sure I actually slow down! Anyway, have a great week!

I've probably already shared this one already, but it's a good one :)

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Personal Happiness project: week 14

Things have been busy! My parents were in town for a convention and I went to a conference at BYU about Europe. One of my goals is to get more involved in politics/world affairs so I don't create a bubble around myself and drift into ignorance. Anyway, on to this week's challenge!

This week is "Never give up on what you want." Well, I'm not sure what I want. Life is still super fluid at this point. Our plans aren't made very far in advance because they could change at any moment. Before I give away all the secrets of my life, I just want to say that it is good to have the reminder to not give up. So, if you're thinking about quitting remember to keep your sights on the end goal even though the every day drudge is bogging you down. I thought about just stopping writing and doing this weekly challenge thing. It's a self-inflicted project that only three or four people read (thanks Megan, Jenn, and Kyle!). But the end goal is happiness and greater satisfaction with myself. So I'm going to keep doing it even though I don't have much time and I feel like I'm talking to myself sometimes. I won't give up, so you shouldn't too!

General Conference is this weekend and it will be good to listen to the leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They frequently answer questions that we have in our hearts and say what we need to hear (even if we may not want to hear it). We are blessed to have the true Gospel of Jesus Christ restored to the earth and living prophets who guide us. It will be fantastic. Have a great week!

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