So, if you are anything like me, you will know and recognise when something annoys you, but do you know and recognise what makes you happy! In these crazy times, with all the pressures life throws at us, it seems that we may have forgotten how to be happy and the benefits happiness can bring. So as a little experiment I have jumped on the 100 happy day’s band wagon.
I keep seeing the hash tags 100happydays, 100dayshappy and variations on Facebook and Twitter – all with a picture of the source of the individual’s happiness. So with the help of Google I decided to investigate this viral trend. The basics – for 100 days in a row, take a picture of whatever made you feel happy and post it to your preferred social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc) and use the hashtag #100happydays and a few words if you want.
Reading posts like “Are you one of those people like me who has a super busy life? Does your daily agenda allow you to be mindful of what makes you Happy every day? No? Well you may be interested in #100happydays. It truly is a lovely project to get you back in touch with what makes you happy.” (Manon Popjes) and my friends pictures have inspired me to give it a go. Firstly, this challenge is not about being happy 24/7 – it is about taking note of what makes you happy and about finding time for happiness every day.
Now ‘Being Sharon Greenwood’ I just cannot do it for the sake of doing it, so decided to do some ‘bench-marking’ to gauge if my happiness does in fact increase by reminding myself that ‘happy things happen every day’ … I just don’t acknowledge them anymore.
So back to Google to find some ‘Happiness Tests’, I completed three of varying complexity and here are the results:
Test 1:
http://psychologytoday.tests.psychtests.com/take_test.php?idRegTest=1320 (47 Questions)
Result: 42/100 Cynicism.
Test 2:
http://happiness.teststipsandtricks.com/test/index.php?id=1
As the specialist Tal Ben-Shahar explains, happiness depends on the level of pleasure you get from your day to day activities, and the meaning you reach by performing these activities.
Result: Pleasure = 31%, Meaning = 49%
Test 3:
http://www.stressandhappiness.com/
This is an actual psychology study so you do need to enter some basic info, age, gender etc. I feel that out of the three this is the most accurate – oh and you get to do a free personality test at the end, which, for me, was really accurate.
Result: Stress – High, Stress Coping – Average, Happiness – Below Average, Positive thoughts – Average.
So I now have my starting point. See you in 100 days.
KEEP SMILING 🙂
Sharon
Being Sharon Greenwood 