100 Days of Summer and a Happy Fall

As many of you are aware, I, along with some family members, some friends and many strangers around the world, embarked on a journey of transformative photojournalism known as #100happydays.

The idea is that, as members of the modern western world, we're so caught up in our day-to-day commuter, punch-clock lifestyles that we're letting the happy moments in our lives slip through our fingers and be forgotten.  #100happydays is an exercise in long-term gratitude and acknowledgement of good things in our lives.

I didn't get a great start in life on this score.  The maternal side of my family has numerous little sayings, and one of the more famous ones was popularized by my grandfather and remains well-used by all members to this day.  "Oh, I'm such a failure."  Add to that the "What happened to the other 3 percent?" I frequently heard from my parents, and it's easy to see why I was never quite happy with the status quo.  Factor in the usual body image issues and a totally run-of-the-mill amount of bad luck, and you can probably guess that this challenge was, indeed, challenging.

On day 100, I posted a picture of myself, freshly showered, wearing pink pajamas with penguins on them, smiling into my smartphone's camera.  I confirmed that my life is really quite full of happiness.  And that it always has been.  When I say the journey was transformative, it wasn't as though I came out a different person.  I came out the same person with different eyes.

Here's what I learned:

1.  Exercise is really good heart medicine.  I think the link between regular exercise and cardiovascular outcomes is beyond significant scrutiny.  That being said, I obviously mean the "feel-y" heart, and not the blood-pumping heart.  I was incredibly active in June and July and while I'm not sure I ever felt the endorphin rush of a runner's high, I definitely felt pretty euphoric for a lot of the time in those months.  Sometimes I get sad and I'm not sure why.  Now I'll take an inventory of my last week's physical activity, because it might have something to do with couch potato's low.

2.  I really like coffee.  Or rather, I really like my local coffee/bookshop.  Some days, the only thing I could find to photograph was the latte I got at the end of a hard day.  There's really nothing like a foamy, creamy, slightly bitter, sometimes sweet, sometimes flavoured, warm and cozy drink to make you feel comfortable in your skin.  On the other hand, I'm pretty sure it wasn't about the coffee.  The bookstore is staffed, pretty much entirely, by friends.  It's really nice to have a place I can go, even for a few minutes, and share a smile, a brief conversation, and sometimes an amusing drawing and then go home and savour the foamy, creamy, warm and cozy memory.

3.  When you're smiling, the whole world smiles with you.  Seriously.  When you walk down the street with a smile on your face, everybody smiles back at you.  (But if the clouds are at your feet, that's amore).  More people say hi.  One man tipped his hat to me one day.  I think because I'm so busy and focused, my natural inclination is to walk fast with my head down, but when you actually let the sun hit your face really good things can happen.  Furthermore, if I'm feeling great that everyone's smiling at me, then everyone else must feel a little bit great also that I'm smiling at them.  It's like getting a million times return on your investment.  I'm pretty sure that I met this really cute boy one day because I smiled at him from across the room, and then he smiled at me, and turns out we think each other are kind of rad.  So, if the smile doesn't come naturally, it might not be a bad idea to fake it 'til I make it.  Because it's working so far.

4.  Happiness takes work.  Some days, the happy things happen to you when you're not expecting them to, but most of the time we actually have to stop and look and listen and SEARCH for those things that are going to make us smile.  I am a really busy girl.  Really.  So I have to be extra diligent not to let my to-do list and my jam-packed agenda catch me up in a whirlwind of places to be and shit to get done, causing me to forget that I wanted to do them in the first place because they make me happy.  And that's the key.  The #100happydays challenge is over, but the "forever happy days" challenge will always be there.  So I need to remember to look for things that make me happy, even if I'm not going to Instagram them.

***My personal #100happydays challenge photos can be found on Instagram and Facebook at #3percenthappy.