Five Things Making Me Happy (Happiest day of my life / Before-and-after)

Hello,

Every year, I celebrate the date of January 9th — the anniversary of the happiest day of my life. On January 9, 2015, my husband Jamie was declared “cured” of the hepatitis C he contracted from a blood transfusion during a childhood heart operation. Thank you, science! Thank you, doctors, nurses, researchers, technicians! I will never take this day for granted.

Also, I was impressed to learn that England is on track to eliminate hepatitis C by 2025.

Onward,

5 Things Making Me Happy

Have you ever done “Dry January?” With alcohol, or with caffeine, sugar, TV, or something else? More and more, I hear about people experimenting with this approach. I’ve developed many strategies for how to build or change a habit, and one thing I’ve learned is that people don’t like the feeling of being deprived. While for some, it’s fun to experiment for a month, others find it difficult, or they find it challenging to maintain that deprivation beyond the four weeks. I was delighted when a friend suggested a way to make deprivation easier: Turn deprivation into indulgence. Read more about this approach here.

The bluebird is a symbol for happiness, so a bluebird appears on the cover of my book The Happiness Project. Over the years I've amassed a collection of bluebirds: Christmas-tree ornaments, bluebird T-shirts that my sister Elizabeth gave me, a bluebird figure sewed by a friend, two framed drawings of bluebirds, a glass bluebird from my grandmother, and more. Encountering a bluebird brings me great pleasure. Do you have a collection of something that makes you happy?

These days, I see many Christmas trees lined up along the streets. I love to smell the sweet, sharp smell of pine as I pass by.

Every January 1, I’m very interested to read the Center for the Study of the Public Domain’s report that highlights some of the most important, interesting works that enter the public domain that year. This year, works from 1927 become open to everyone! (In the U.S.; more or less.) The list includes some books that I love: Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse, Willa Cather’s Death Comes for the Archbishop, Thornton Wilder’s The Bridge of San Luis Rey, Marcel Proust’s Time Regained. Plus movies, music, and more.

I love a good “before-and-after,” especially the “after.” We finally got our sofa reupholstered, so the stuffing isn’t coming out of the worn-out spot anymore.

Updates

Our community challenge for 2023 is to go outside for 23 minutes every day: #Outside23in23. Starting Sunday the 15th in the Happier app, you'll find seven days of concrete, actionable prompts to help you establish a daily habit and enjoy your time outdoors.