Update
We’ll be talking to the brilliant Anne Lamott on an upcoming Book Club episode. Read her bestselling book of essays, Somehow: Thoughts on Love (Amazon, Bookshop), or her book about writing, Bird by Bird (Amazon, Bookshop), and her wonderful, thought-provoking memoir Operating Instructions: A Journal of My Son’s First Year (Amazon, Bookshop). Send us your questions and comments.
Try This at Home
Train for a tough transition.
Happiness Hack
Store stuffed animals in a stuffable zipper beanbag chair.
Happier Highlight
Back in to 2016, we got a listener question that inspired an answer from a listener that people continue to refer to, so we’re highlighting that question and answer.
The original question came in episode 78. A listener was distraught because she’d lost her engagement ring.
In episode 82, we discussed a listener’s response:
In our culture, Japanese sometimes believe things can take your place in the event of a bad happening such as an accident. It’s totally a myth, but it is not too difficult to think about losing things that way for us. Maybe the listener who lost her wedding ring can think that her precious ring protected her from bad things.
A listener wrote to say that a few weeks ago, she used this idea to calm herself when her dress’s zipper broke at an important time.
I read a quotation from The Old Ways: A Journey on Foot (Amazon, Bookshop) by Robert Macfarlane:
A warning, I thought superstitiously, had been issued to me: that the going would not be easy, and that romanticism would be quickly punished. It was only a few miles later that I remembered the letter a friend had sent me when I told him about my plan to walk the Icknield Way. Take care as you pass the ring-fort, he had written back. When I mentioned the fall later, he was unamazed. ‘This was an entry fee to the old ways, charged at one of the usual tollbooths,’ he said. ‘Now you can proceed. You’re in. Bone for chalk: you’ve paid your due.’ It was the first of several incidents along the old ways that I still find hard to explain away rationally.
Demerits & Gold Stars
Elizabeth’s Demerit: She hasn’t been consistent with her One-Sentence Journal for #Write24in24.
Gretchen’s Gold Star: I give a gold star to the extremely useful flashlight feature on smartphones.
Resource
The Happiness Project Collection has some great digital resources. You can find the bestselling Happiness Project Companion Guide, video workshops, gift cards, and more.
What We’re Reading
**This transcript is unedited**
482
[music]
Gretchen
Hello and welcome to Happier a podcast where we talk about ideas, hacks, research observations, lessons from our own life about how to be happier. This week we’ll talk about why we might train for a tough transition, and we’ll suggest an easy hack for dealing with massive quantities of stuffed animals.
Gretchen
I’m Gretchen Rubin, a writer who studies happiness, Good habits, the Five senses, Human Nature. I’m in my little home office in New York City. And joining me today from L.A. is my sister, Elizabeth Craft. And Elizabeth, we had quite a stuffed animal collection ourselves back in the day.
Elizabeth
That’s me, Elizabeth Craft, a TV writer and producer living in L.A. and Gretsch. When I’m in Kansas City, I still like to go look at all the Snoopy clothes and the little Snoopy suitcase. Can’t give those up.
Gretchen
Love. The little Snoopy suitcase. I do that, too. So before we dive in, we have a few updates from listeners.
Elizabeth
Yes, this comes from Laura. She says, I signed up for the Daily Proms for national letter writing months. I even took advantage of the coupon from paper source and ordered a box of cute stationery. It came with 30 pieces of paper, so I thought it was perfect for the month of April. I wrote them all at once while bored at a medical conference and off they went.
Elizabeth
It brought me a tremendous amount of happiness. I wrote them mostly to friends, a few to family. So it served as my April the Happiness Project Revisited project, and it was very fulfilling. However, the best part is that I’m now getting letters back. I did this for my own personal fulfillment, acknowledging that it would probably brighten others days.
Elizabeth
Never did I expect people to write back and the letters that I have received in return have been the very best part. Well, isn’t this lovely? So sweet. I love her friends and family.
Gretchen
Well, and it’s great that she didn’t expect it, you know. Listen, you and I always joke about, we want to get a present in the mail, meaning we want to have some sort of unexpected little thing come to us. And she got that. Yes. So it’s a great reminder that if you write a letter, you might get a letter back.
Gretchen
And this came from Jane. She writes, I just listened to episode 479 and was inspired to copy both and write a sensory autobiography. I thought I’d be like Liz and not keep track of how many I wrote for each sense, but just write whatever came to mind as a result of nasal polyps. My sense of smell and taste has diminished from little to completely zilch over the last 20 years.
Gretchen
Naturally, when I did your What’s your most neglected scents quiz? My most neglected sense was smell. So imagine my surprise when all 24 items on my list turned out to be memories. Smell memories. Ha ha. I’d scribbled them all out in roughly chronological order, and it was an absolute joy to remember this long ago sense from my grandmother’s potpourri.
Gretchen
My mother’s freshly baked bread, the hot, damp smell of the tropics. After rain freezes and gardenias, the smell of a new book and my husband’s aftershave. Thank you so much for giving me the long forgotten s’memories of my life.
Elizabeth
Love that we have to start using that phrase. I love that.
Gretchen
I love that. And if you haven’t taken the quiz that Jane is talking about, you can just go to Gretchen Rubin.com slash quiz and find out what is your most neglected sentence. It’s really fun to find out.
Elizabeth
And Gretchen, we want to remind everyone that we’ll be talking to the brilliant Anne Lamott on an upcoming book club episode. Read her number one New York Times best seller book of essays somehow thoughts on love or her book about writing Bird by Bird, which has become a classic. Yes. And her wonderful, thought provoking memoir, Operating Instructions, A journal of my Son’s First year.
Elizabeth
Read any of those. Read all of them. We read. They are so good. And then, of course, send us your questions and comments we will be talking to and soon.
Gretchen
And speaking of questions and comments, we are putting together an Ask us Anything episode. We haven’t done one of these in a long time. We started getting some really fun questions, so send them in podcast. Gretchen Rubin dot com.
Elizabeth
Yes.
Gretchen
And now for the try this at home this week are try this at home suggestion is to train for a tough transition.
Elizabeth
Now Gretchen this is such an interesting idea. Explain what it means.
Gretchen
Okay, so i got this idea from a conversation with a friend and she told me about this, and I thought about it, and I came back to her a couple of weeks later and said, your approach was so interesting. I think it’s so valuable to you. Would it be okay if we talked about it on the podcast? So I’m not going to say her name, but she said it was fine and she was actually really happy to hear that you and I thought that this was something that was really useful for other people to think about.
Gretchen
This was about going through a divorce and how she decided to train for her divorce. Something happened in her marriage and, you know, had been rocky for a while. And then she had a realization, like in a moment, she’s like, okay, this marriage is over. I’m going to ask for a divorce. But she decided in that moment that she was going to train for it, and she decided she was going to give herself a year.
Gretchen
She said, this is going to be the hardest thing that I ever go through. She had three kids. The complicated life, and she quit drinking. She was always a sporadic exerciser. So she got very regular with her exercise. She was a sporadic person with meditation, but she got really consistent with meditation. She’s already in therapy, like couples therapy.
Gretchen
But then she went into therapy for herself to help with it. And she’s like a business person. So she thought about like, well, when you’re going through a big transition in business, you think about, well, what are our resources? And like, what do we need to shore up and what can we take advantage of? So she had really strong friends, but she’s like, I’m really going to shore up my friendships and just kind of clean up everything.
Gretchen
And she said she thought of it like a big work project. Where am I now? Where do I want to go? How do I stay calm? She wanted to maintain her equanimity because she knew it was going to be so hard. And she spent that you’re doing it. And then at the end of the year, she went to her husband and said, We need to get a divorce.
Gretchen
And she said, it just it’s been super, super hard. But she feels like she’s been able to manage it for herself and for her family and for her husband in a better way. And she also said she feels like she’s more in control.
Elizabeth
And it’s such a good idea. Gretchen because as we talk about on the podcast so often during a tough time is when you let things like that go. Yeah, when you say, I’m just going to eat junk and drink and not exercise because I stay up late, I, yeah, I deserve this. But of course you’re so much better off, as you say, shoring up and being in a good frame of mind to deal with adversity.
Elizabeth
And it’s hard. It is to do that. But that’s why I like the training. Yes. For the tough transition so that you are putting yourself in a strong place before you actually step into the fire, so to speak. Now, you can’t always do that, of course. Sometimes things come upon you unexpectedly. Yes, but if you have the chance, yes, they can be really useful.
Elizabeth
Like if you know, a lot of times people know, for instance, that their job is going to end. They know layoffs are coming and that they’re likely going to be affected.
Gretchen
Well, that’s true. Like, you’re like, okay, it’s not good. Yes, you’re getting the storm warnings, right.
Elizabeth
And so if you start training for that, it’s going to be putting you in a better place when that news finally comes to act. I mean, I know we knew the strike was likely coming.
Gretchen
Well, you sort of didn’t train for it, but you had a project ready. You had if this then that you had a plan. So in a way, it was a kind of training. It was a kind of work training where you had a plan. I guess it’s not really training because it was more like you flipped to a different path.
Elizabeth
Yes, but we did put ourselves in the position. Yeah, creatively, yes, we worked on it beforehand so that we were ready to go once that hit. So I guess I would call that as sort of a training.
Gretchen
I would say that I had forgotten that you had done a lot of prep work ahead of time. That’s exactly right. Well, you know, it’s interesting. When I was writing The Happiness Project, sort of the point of that book was, what do you do with your ordinary life? Like how do you have more appreciation and more happiness in your ordinary life?
Gretchen
So I wasn’t going through a big, tough transition, but I remember thinking, it’s going to happen. We’re all going to go through shocks, challenges, terrible things that happened to us. And I thought, Well, now is the time to try to put myself into a better place. Let me do the groundwork so that when a big challenge comes that I’m more prepared.
Gretchen
And I have talked to people who said like, looking back, I was so glad that I started this or started that for my own happiness because then when something happened, I was just in a better place to handle it.
Elizabeth
Yeah, and it doesn’t have to be something bad. I mean, a tough transition can be a good thing. A move can be a tough transition, whether it’s to another city or just to another, you know, house or apartment.
Gretchen
You might think about, I need to get my house ready. But you might think, well, maybe I need to do things so that I can have more equanimity through something that I know is going to be really challenging. I have a friend who who had a big, big move, and it was it was extraordinarily difficult and disruptive for her.
Gretchen
And so thinking about like, how might she have trained for it, as well as just thinking about the logistics of it might have helped. You know, it’s interesting because there’s a lot of conventional wisdom about like, okay, if you’re facing a tough transition, like after it’s happened, well, think about starting a new hobby or work out or take a bucket list trip or something like that.
Gretchen
And that could help you after. But we don’t always think about like, well, what would I do beforehand that would set me up for going through that transition?
Elizabeth
Gretchen Another tough transition that I have friends who’ve been going through is surgeries. So yeah, I have friends who’ve had knee surgery, hip surgery, Yeah. And usually again you have a date for that, you know, when it’s coming, you know it’s going to be tough but necessary. And this kind of training I think, can be super helpful for that.
Elizabeth
Yeah.
Gretchen
Well, a lot of times they explicitly want you to get something stronger to help you get through it. But you could think of, well, not only do I want to strengthen the muscles in my legs, but that I also want to work on other areas of my life. I want to train in all areas so that I can get through that transition with as least disruption as possible.
Elizabeth
Yeah. And Gretchen, you are facing a transition.
Gretchen
Yeah, well, yes, because, yeah, my younger daughter is off to college and you know, we talked about the empty nest which we are now rebranding open door and that’s one of the things to do which is like, okay, how am I even conceiving of this transition? So for me, like, I like the open door so much better than the empty nest, but there’s a lot of things that I’m thinking about, like, you know, I love to join or start a group.
Gretchen
So I’ve been thinking like, well, maybe I wanted to start a group because that gives me a feeling of growth and excitement. Like meeting with new people is so energizing. I love that. Do more to support the causes I believe in. I want to train, keep up with going to the Met every day. Yeah, I want to think about what can I start now so that when that change happens, I feel on solid ground.
Elizabeth
Yes. You want your life to feel full? Yeah. You don’t want to be focused on the absences.
Gretchen
How about you, Elizabeth? How might you train for a transition? What are you thinking about?
Elizabeth
Well, I mean, Gretchen, Hollywood is going through a time of transition. Yeah, I think that in.
Gretchen
The never ending.
Elizabeth
Transition. Yes, but now is a particular crisis point. Yes, And I have been trying to train for it. It’s happening. It’s in motion. But I have been trying to really focus on exercise during this time because I do know that’s the one thing I can count on. Yeah. To make me more able to handle whatever is happening around me, chaos around me, and it is helping.
Elizabeth
And I do really recommend that. It seems obvious. Yeah, but it’s hard to do in the moment when you just want to shut yourself away and ignore what’s happening. Yeah, it is really helpful to get outside, go to a class, whatever it is, just to focus on your health.
Gretchen
Yeah, and I think framing it as training for a tough transition maybe makes it feel like more of a thing. Like, Yeah, this is how I’m getting control of something that’s happening, which may be under my control, but may not be under my control, and maybe I don’t see it coming and I can’t do this. But if I do see it coming, this is a way to prepare and often with preparation, that itself is comforting.
Gretchen
So let us know if you do try this at home and how training for a tough transition has worked for you in the past. Have you tried something like this? Might you tried in the future? We would love to hear listeners response. Let us know on Instagram threads. Facebook Tok Drop us an email or podcast at Gretchen Rubin dot com.
Gretchen
Or as always, you can go to the show notes. This is happier cars.com slash 482 for everything related to this episode.
Elizabeth
Coming up, we have a fun storage hack. But first this break.
[music]
Elizabeth
Okay. Gretchen we’re back with a happiness hack. This is a fun one. Yes.
Gretchen
Okay. So there are certain children who love a stuffed animal. Most children have some stuffed animals, but some children have lots and lots and lots of stuffed animals and they sort of can take over your whole house.
Elizabeth
Yes.
Gretchen
And so a friend of mine told me that they now have these beanbag chairs and we’ll put a link in the show notes. Just see you can see the kind of thing that we’re talking about. But it’s empty. It’s just like the shell of a beanbag chair and you unzip it and then you stuff it full of the stuffed animals and then you can use it as a chair.
Gretchen
But that at any time, if the child wants to go in there and like, you know, dig out their stuffed giraffe or whatever, it’s right there. So it’s very accessible, but it makes them more useful and you kind of can’t tidy up the room. Yeah, they’re hard to manage.
Elizabeth
Yes. I mean, my son Jack, now 14, but he was a stuffed animal kid and he does not want me to send any of those stuffed animals on to other homes. He is very attached to them, even though he’s kind of obviously grown out of that space. So something like this would be perfect for him, right?
Gretchen
Because he could have the beanbag chair just stuck in the corner. Yeah. If he wanted to plop down while he was changing his shoes or something, that’s useful.
Elizabeth
But, you know, there are there.
Gretchen
He knows they’re there. And also the room maybe looks more adult too. I was thinking more for managing clutter, but it’s also for the child who who doesn’t want to give them away but maybe doesn’t want to have like a friend walking in their room and see like the thousand, you know, stuffed turtle collection. Yes. Yeah. Yes. That’s fun.
Gretchen
And then here’s a bonus one. This came from Lauren, and I just thought this was a good example of workplace silliness and how technology sometimes really can give us a little lift.
Elizabeth
Lauren says. My coworker Sarah and I love your podcast and have listened for years. We wanted to share a little happiness hack that has brought us joy in the virtual workplace lately in Microsoft Teams. If you send a high five emoji and a chat and the other person sends one back, it gives a happy little burst of high fives.
Elizabeth
This always makes us smile. We hope it helps make someone else a little happier too. I like that. Yes. I have been in Microsoft teams many times. I wish I had known about that.
Gretchen
Little fun thing. And now for a happier highlight. Okay, this is so interesting because way back in 2016, we got a listener question that inspired an answer from another listener that people continue to make reference to. And this was something that it kind of passed in a flash. It’s not an idea that we return to every year, like design your summer or something like that.
Gretchen
And in fact, we got a comment just a few weeks ago from another listener picking up on this idea eight years later. And so because, you know, we’ve got a lot of episodes, we’ve been doing this quite some time. Yeah, we thought it would be fun for a happier highlight to highlight the original question, the original answer than the common response.
Gretchen
And then just in a book that I’m reading right now, I came across an example, sort of a different version of the same kind of idea. And I just think this is an idea that really resonates with people. And Elizabeth, it has to do with reframing, which is something you love.
Elizabeth
I do. I do.
Gretchen
So we’re just going to go through the chain of ideas that was exchanged.
Elizabeth
Okay. So the original question was in episode 78 from our listener Alison, she said, I recently lost my engagement ring that I had been wearing for seven years. I never take it off. And I just happened to notice one afternoon that it was not there. And I have frantically retraced my steps and searched my office at home trying to find this ring to no avail.
Elizabeth
I’m surprised at how upset it made me, because I am usually not sentimental about objects, but for this particular item my husband had saved for years in graduate school to buy the ring. And like I said, I never take it off. So unfortunately my insurance on the ring lapsed while we moved to Florida. And not only that, but we are not in a financial position to be able to replace it if I wanted to do that at this time.
Elizabeth
So my question for you is how do you bounce back from an experience like that that is totally unexpected with something that is not really replaceable?
Gretchen
So this is a really hard question, which is she’s saying, how can I handle this intense negative emotions that came from losing something precious? Right. This is something probably we’ve all experienced and it’s really hard. It’s like that is the ring. And how do you handle the feelings that you’ve lost it and it can’t be replaced. So then in episode 82, we discussed a listener’s response.
Elizabeth
Yes. And this really resonated. It came from Uri. She said, My friend, who is a foreign correspond that used to have a solitary diamond ring she bought herself. She always wore the ring wherever her assignments took her for several, maybe ten years. One day she realized that she was missing her ring when she was reporting abroad. She was very sad because it had the sentimental value.
Elizabeth
She felt as if she had lost a war buddy. Her assignments included many war torn countries and disaster areas in the world. Then she thought maybe the ring sacrifice itself in order to protect her from something bad. In our culture, Japanese sometimes believe things can take your place in the event of a bad happening, such as an accident.
Elizabeth
It’s totally a myth, but it is not too difficult to think about losing things that way for us. Maybe the listener who lost her wedding ring can think that her precious ring protected her from bad things. As Gretchen said, you can’t change what happened, but we can change how we regard that event.
Gretchen
And many, many times, ever since that exchange, people have written in to ask what were the episodes where that idea was raised? Because it’s something that has just really stuck in people’s imagination. And just a few weeks ago, you know, here we are in 2024, all these years later, Marianne wrote with her own example.
Elizabeth
She said, I don’t remember which episode of the podcast this was on, but I do remember a time where you talked about items sacrificing themselves. So something bad doesn’t happen to you later. I feel like that was exactly what happened today. I went to put on my conducting dress as I was getting ready to take my band to contest and the zipper broke.
Elizabeth
I was panicking and I had to get my principal to come help me out of my dress. Since I was stuck. It was a little crazy. But then I remembered not to freak out too much because it might have just saved me from something else. I don’t know what it saved me from, but the rest of the day went great, and my band earned the highest award.
Elizabeth
But I was definitely thinking about y’all, and I think your advice kept me from completely freaking out and letting my whole day be ruined.
Gretchen
So again, it’s this comforting idea that somehow our possessions are stepping in for us and protecting us. And it’s a very reassuring idea. And I came across a slightly different reframing, but it reminded me of this exchange, and I think it’s I’ll just throw it into it’s this idea that something painful can actually be a sign that you’re protected, that it’s somehow these things are tied together.
Gretchen
So I’m reading this very interesting book called The Old Ways A Journey on Foot by Robert McFarlane. He describes how he’s going on long, adventurous walking journeys on old ways, such as the ancient routes that criss cross England. So in this passage that Elizabeth reminded me of this ring conversation, he’s setting off on the old way, which is one of Britain’s oldest still surviving paths, which is on the chalk spine of England, and it’s considered part of the great chalk way.
Gretchen
Chalk is a soft white variety of limestone, which from ancient times has been really important to the landscape in Britain. This is not unimportant information, right? Chalk is part of the historic oak. So here he is. He’s going to travel this path on foot. But to get to the starting point, he starts on his bike, He’s riding his bike.
Gretchen
It’s a glorious morning. He’s looking around. He’s not paying attention. He starts going too fast. He loses control of his bike. He has this crash. He cracks a rib or maybe two. He’s bleeding. He’s bruise it, but he realizes he’s basically okay. And so he can continue on his journey because, you know, this is right at the beginning of this long journey.
Gretchen
And this is what he writes, a warning. I thought superstitious Lee had been issued to me that the going would not be easy and that romanticism would be quickly punished. It was only a few miles later that I remembered the letter a friend had sent me. When I told him about my plan to walk the old way. Take care as you pass the ring for it.
Gretchen
He had written back when I mentioned the fall later, he was amazed. This was an entry fee to the old ways charged at one of the usual tollbooth. He said, Now you can proceed. You’re in bone for chalk, you’ve paid your due. It was the first of several incidents along the old ways that I still find hard to explain away rationally.
Gretchen
So to me, this sounded like something from Lord of the Rings. Yes, But again, it’s this idea that you’re having an experience. But that seems bad. But it’s actually a sign that there’s a kind of protection. And again, you don’t have to rationally believe it to be comforted by it.
Elizabeth
Yes, it’s very poetic. It is. And it’s powerful. I think, you know, poetry is powerful.
Gretchen
Yes.
Elizabeth
Symbols, yes. They resonate with us as human beings. So I think this is great. I, I got chills when you were reading that. It’s. Yeah, really cool idea.
Gretchen
Yeah. So thank you. Back to Alison and Yuri, who really started this conversation that has resonated so deeply with so many listeners for so many years and certainly has stuck with us.
Elizabeth
Yes. And I’m sure we’ll keep hearing from people about it for years to come. Yes. All right. Greg’s coming up. I have a demerit related to our 24 and 24 challenge. But first, this break.
[music]
Gretchen
It’s time for demerits and gold stars. Elizabeth, This is an even numbered episode, which means it’s your turn to talk about a demerit.
Elizabeth
Yes. So, gretchen, this year we are doing hashtag write 24 and 24, which is right. 2 to 4 minutes or 24 minutes. Your choice every day in 2024. Yeah, and my plan has been to write in my one sentence journal every day, 2 to 4 minutes. Yeah. And I started off strong writing every single day. And lately I just have not been consistent.
Elizabeth
I have not done it. Yeah, At least not every night. I do it sometimes. Now, can I tell you that I’ve already realized the problem? Because you’ve trained me so well. Identify the problem.
Gretchen
What’s the problem?
Elizabeth
Well, when we started out, I had an alarm set for 9:15 p.m. every night, and the alarm would go off and I would say, I need to write in my journal. Yeah. For some reason I turned that alarm off. I think I was going to an event, you know, something where I obviously did not want my phone beeping out at 915 and I realized I haven’t turned it back on.
Gretchen
Well, you can do that, right?
Elizabeth
So that’s what I’m going to do today. Yeah. And hopefully that will fix the problem.
Gretchen
Well, I have to confess. So for my right 24 and 24, I’m writing in the one sentence journal and the Five Senses Journal, because, you know, my big worry is that now that I’m not working on a book about the five senses, I’ll just float back up into my head and get stuck there and lose all the progress I’ve made.
Gretchen
And I found that I was also not being consistent. And for me it was the reminder of not having them out on my I sort of have this counter that sticks out next to my whole computer set up and I would just keeping them there and then I would see them and I would remember to do it and I put them up on a shelf and you would think, Well, they’re still right there in front of me, but it really did affect the consistency.
Gretchen
And so I was like, okay, I got to keep them out again. Yeah, because you think, it’s such a habit. It’s so fun to. Yeah, well, why wouldn’t I do it? And then it just doesn’t occur to.
Elizabeth
You slips away. Yeah. Okay, so I’m back on the right 24 and 24 train gretch.
Gretchen
Okay, you got it.
Elizabeth
Tell us, what is your gold star this week?
Gretchen
Okay, this is just a gold star for something and technology that we all probably take for granted. But I remember when it was first introduced how excited I was and how useful this thing is, which is the flashlight feature on the smartphone. This is so handy. How many times a day do I turn on my flashlight? I mean, on an average day, I would say three or five and sometimes like 30.
Gretchen
So, Elizabeth, you and I and our families were in the Napa Valley earthquake in 2014 because we were there for our cousin’s wedding. And it was in the middle of the night. I grabbed my glasses and my phone. I first I grabbed Jamie, but then I grabbed my glasses and my phone, and then I could turn on the flashlight.
Gretchen
And it was so great because we weren’t really in any danger, but we were scared.
Elizabeth
And the power was out.
Gretchen
yeah, It was completely dark and silent. Like, you don’t realize, like, how there’s such a hum of being in a building every time the power goes off and we had to find our parents. It was a whole thing. And I just remember thinking, my gosh, I feel so fortunate that I have a flashlight with me because if I hadn’t had that, I mean, maybe you go to some places and they do put flashlights right next to your hotel bed, but I don’t even know that I would have registered that they were there, even if they were there.
Gretchen
But even just in everyday life, just.
Elizabeth
restaurants, restaurants. How often do I use my flashlight to read a menu all the time?
Gretchen
Yeah. Something like rolls under a chair and you’re looking for some like, little top of a screw or something? I don’t know. So anyway, I want to just. I want to give a gold star and gratitude is an emotion that makes us happier. And I just. I want to be grateful to all the technicians and and technology that go into the flashlight, because it is definitely something that has made my life happier and more convenient.
Elizabeth
Yes, I think many of us would agree. Yes. And gretcht. What’s the resource this week?
Gretchen
This week, the resources from the Happiness Project collection. There are lots of great digital resources there that can be very helpful. They could help you through a big transition, for instance, you know, by helping you with introspection. They can also make good last minute gifts. If you need to find a gift for somebody like maybe graduation. If you go to happier cars.com slash shop, there’s a lot there.
Gretchen
I will say that something that I have to say is kind of surprised me with how popular it is, is the Happiness Project Companion guide. So you might want to take a look at that. That’s something that people really like much more than words that I much more than I expected. So that’s have your cars.com flesh up. And then what are we reading, Elizabeth, What are you reading?
Elizabeth
I am rereading Ann of Green Gables by L.M. montgomery.
Gretchen
and as I said, I’m reading The Old Ways A Journey on Foot by Robert Macfarlane. And that’s it for this episode of Happier. Remember to Try this at home. Train for a tough transition. Let us know if you’ve tried it and if it works for you.
Elizabeth
Thank you to our executive producer Chuck Reed and everyone at Odyssey Get in touch. Gretchen’s on Instagram threads, Facebook and Tik-tok at Gretchen Rubin and I’m on Instagram and threads at Liz Craft.
Gretchen
And if you like this show, you know what I’m going to say, but I’m going to say it in a rhyming way because of the fluency heuristic. If you like this show, tell the people, you know, we will really, really appreciate it. And also not rhyming. You can write, review and follow us. Thank you.
Elizabeth
Until next week, I’m Elizabeth Craft.
Gretchen
And I’m Gretchen Rubin. Thanks for joining us. Onward and upward.
Gretchen
Elizabeth. When my friend told me about this stuffed animal beanbag chair, I immediately thought of Jack because he was a kid who he loved a stuffed animal. I remember anywhere we would go, you’re like, I got to get a stuffed animal for Jack. You know, we were on one of our sisterly adventures.
Elizabeth
Yes. I mean, his whole bed. I mean, he could only sleep in a tiny little portion of the bed because the rest of it was covered with stuffed animals. So.
Gretchen
Yes. And you want to keep them somewhere?
Elizabeth
Yes. So that’s a great idea.
Gretchen
From the onward project.