making cecily happy

I don't know if you noticed, but I'm we're (because it's more than just me) more than half way through NaBloPoMo. So far so good. I haven't missed a day yet.

When I began 17 days ago, I was in the depths of despair, scraping the bottom of the barrel and resorting to self diagnosis. Now might be a good time to check in with a little progress report.

On one level I'm doing well. I haven't walked every day (yesterday I wussed out in the rain and... well... aren't weekends for sleeping in?), but most week days I'm getting up at six and walking. I've noticed I'm a lot more motivated and my mood has really lifted. (I've even noticed a bit of the silver lining the last few days!)

Take a deeper look and things aren't much changed. The contributing factors remain the same, and I'm sure there's still quite a bit of sadness in there. Life has picked up its pace the last few weeks too, and I haven't made space to look inside much... besides, the sadness is not oozing out at unexpected moments so I'm not going to push things. I feel OK and that's enough for now.

ABC started a series called 'Making Australia Happy' on Monday night. Eight people completed a Happy 100 Index to determine their level of happiness, then they were put through their happiness paces, a series of activities designed to increase their happiness. They completed another Happy 100 Index questionnaire to see how these activities had affected their happiness levels.

What really caught my ear was the observation by Dr Tony Grant that scientists now believe 50% of our happiness is genetically determined, 10% relates to life circumstances and 40% has to do with how well we look after ourselves.

Thinking back over the last two weeks, I can attest to that. My circumstances have barely changed, yet I am feeling better. Not where I want to be yet, but certainly moving in the right direction. What has helped with that? Journalling, exercise, spiritual reflection, allowing myself to feel my full range of emotions. I'm pleased that my pro-activity is making a difference... and I'm going to stick with it.

Especially since I just took the test and discovered my Happy 100 Index is only 54 - barely on the positive side of things! I can't compare this to a score at the beginning of the month, but I'm sure this is an improvement on what it would have been back then.

For now, I must to bed... sleep is important to happiness too you know! And I won't be able to drag myself out to walk in the morning if I don't!

G'night.