My Happiness Project Status

Long time, no blog posts! The year has changed, too, so it feels like months have gone by. Let’s look at how my Happiness Project is doing then! This post is part of my blog series The Happiness Project.

Where I Left Things

My previous post in this project series was posted on 1 December: Wrapping Up November And Revealing My December Happiness Project.

Despite several shorter illnesses I felt reasonably good about my progress, but in December I hit a true low in my health. By then I was on my nth version of the flu, now combined with a many days lasting stomach bug.

While I dearly love my tiny nephew, feelings towards his highly infectious daycare-centre greetings are quite the opposite. They cause nothing but fatigue for a minimum of a week, headaches, sore throat, nasty airways and even slight fever. It is incredibly frustrating and anxiety-inducing when work constantly suffers, too.

Daily Steps As Indicator

I keep track of my steps in an on-going effort to increase the daily number. July and August were hot months here, so dog walks etc. were kept at a minimum. Here is a screenshot from my app, with July as first month:

Starting September I had at least one flu every month, and my conditioning went more down the drain each time. In November and December I had one week each as a gap of only a few steps.

The same pattern has continued in the new year. Walking swiftly and tackling hills are two examples of feeling horrified at how heavily I breathe now.

Happiness Project Implications

So where has all this placed my Happiness Project on the list of priorities? It almost scooted off it. Currently there is no project month going on, but officially they have all been put on hold.

Amidst taking it day by day, sometimes only one moment to the next, this project has felt like a luxury of sorts, an activity to engage with from a place of privilege. As in privilege of health, balance and vitality, nothing of which has resonated with me in a long time.

It is a reminder for my reader as well to recall that a gentle conversation with oneself is far healthier than meeting unrealistic expectations. And there may be people around us, who need understanding about various limitations they face, whether temporary or permanent, even when we ourselves might be capable of optimal speed at high productivity levels.

What Next?

I have a simple but quite important theme in mind for when I feel up for this project again. It is something that I have started questioning only recently, after having moved last, so it goes to show how much in our daily lives we keep on doing one way once a habit has been established. But more about this in spring!

Speaking of seasons, we keep having snowfall here so there is no end to winter yet. My sister said the other day that we started wearing our winter jackets in late October, early November, which makes it almost five months already. Oh well :)

Please post your thoughts in the comments below, if there is something on your mind!

 

Photo credit: Annie Spratt.