The Happiness Project

I just started reading a great book called The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin. The main premise is that by making small changes in your life and attitude you can increase your happiness. We all have a baseline level but she teaches you how to push yourself to the higher part of your range. I am going to test her theory out and try my own. You can try too and she also has a website with tools that are free that anyone can use. http://happiness-project.com/ The first part is to ask yourself the following questions so here are my answers: ▪ What makes you feel good? What gives you joy, energy, fun? - Reading - Being organized - Spending time with friends and family - Helping others - Music - Learning something new ▪ What makes you feel bad? What brings you anger, guilt, boredom, dread? - Being late - Having nothing to look forward to- lack of fun - Finances - When I can't fix something that someone else has to do for themselves but it impacts my life - Gossip ▪ What makes you feel right? What values do you want your life to reflect? - Family- I want to have my family do fun things together. I want to build memories to look back on and enjoy - My career. I love helping other people understand how to help themselves be healthy. I want to be the best RN I can be. - Beauty- I love an organized and serene and colorful home that feels WARM - Nature- I enjoy being outside as long as the weather is cool enough ▪ How can you build an atmosphere of growth—where you learn, explore, build, teach, help? - Get organized - Plan ahead - meal planning, schedule time for professional development -Join professional organization -Take a class for fun I'll be expanding on these questions but this is the first step.

Switching my profile to Google + today. Joyful Dreamer was the name I chose when I was deciding to start a journey to discover where I wanted to go in my life. I have achieved that goal, to pursue a career in nursing. And in the last 2 months I have begun the work of my chosen profession. I am really loving nursing. I work in a non-profit clinic, helping people who are the most in need of preventative healthcare. We keep them out of the ER and try to give them the tools they need to be active participants in their health care. I spend a lot of my time doing Blood Pressure Checks, Immunizations, Diabetes Education and just listening to my patients. I have a lot to learn but it feels like I made the right choice. I am not sure if I will move on in the future to complete my MSN, and become a CNM- Certified Nurse Midwife or not. I am leaving all options on the table and we will see what calls to me.

I am feeling very blessed these days. My children are thriving. Ben celebrated his first birthday. He is almost a toddler, cruising along the furniture and getting into everything he can get his hands on. He's pointing and talking and such a fun little person. My older children are all doing well in school. All of us have handled the transition from student to professional working mom smoothly. I owe a lot of that to my husband Lane, who has spent the last 2 months being a stay at home dad. He's currently looking for work and Ben started daycare last week half days 3 days a week so he can do that while Ben learns to be with other kids and caretakers. It's going very well so far and I am not stressed at all about being away from him while I'm at work. It has been everything I could have hoped for and I am so very thankful for that!