International Day of Happiness

There’s always a lot of happy going on round here. For me,  happiness is healthy. I loved Carly’s post on 7 Things Happy People Do especially because I do all seven things, or at least I try to. For me, being happy is a conscious decision, because I know it’s good for my health.

voltaire

So I was pretty pleased to discover today is the United Nation’s International Day of Happiness. I know technically every day that I wake up is a day of happiness, but I just love the idea of a special day to celebrate happiness and share it around. This year our mission, should we choose to accept it, is to reclaim happiness.

In today’s modern world, it makes me sad that  happiness is portrayed as being a measure of  wealth, power or beauty, when really those things although pleasant enough, don’t make you happy.  All the things that make us truly happy, like love (be it from ourselves or others,) health and well being , are all the things money cannot buy. Happiness isn’t something that comes from outside, it comes from within.

There’s loads of super cool stuff on the interweb to help you get your happy on.

I love Action for Happiness  which has oodles of stuff appropriate not just for today, but every other day too. I am particularly keen on the 10 Keys to Happier Living. Lots of food for happy thoughts right there.

There’s tons of fun over at the World Happiness Forum too. I can’t wait to get started with the  7 Day Happiness Challenge and am totes looking forward to a daily email for the next 7 days, each one containing happiness tips (there’s no such thing as too many,) and a Happy Challenge. Will you join me?

If you want to get involved you can share your happy photos, something or someone that you love, something that inspires you or a magical moment in time and upload them on to the Happiness wall.  My photo is already taking up some wall space. I took this at the St George Open Air Cinema in January. Everything about this makes me happy, the memories, and the view.

St George Open Air Cinema

 If you see something that makes you happy today,  why not take a picture and share it on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram with the hashtag #happinessday?  With our happy snaps, together we can create a vision of happiness.

I’m going to be at work for most of the day but I’m still going to take happy action…

1.  I’m going to take some time out to reflect on all the awesome stuff me and my workmates do. Teachers are the tops! Especially the teachers at my place.

2. I’m going to smile even more than usual at everyone. I will also refrain from singing. (The latter is sure to make everyone happy!)

3. I’m not going to work through my lunch, I’m going to eat it and enjoy it.

What happy actions will you take today? Let’s get our happy pants on!