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Mike Birchmeier Dr.

Beard ENGL 212 MW 2:30-3:50 12/09/2013 My Happiness Project Sonja Lyubomirsky is a psychology professor at the University of California Riverside and author of The How of Happiness. In her novel, Lyubomirsky explains the concept of a genetic baseline of happiness; a sort of set point of happiness where an individuals particular level of happiness always returns to over time. She also explains that this genetic baseline varies between individuals, causing certain people to be naturally more or less happy than others. Lyubomirsky also goes on to explain that this genetic baseline only accounts for roughly 50 percent of an individuals happiness. 10 percent comes from life circumstances, both good and bad, that are out of ones control and the remaining 40 percent is determined through conscious effort. (Lyubomirsky). This suggests that an individuals level of happiness is largely under their own control, building off of the things that they do and the choices that they make on a daily basis. In her novel, The Happiness Project, Gretchen Rubin sets it upon herself to take control of the 40 percent of her happiness that is controlled by her own actions by setting monthly commandments to follow. These commandments cover a wide range of topics, but all strive to increase her overall level of happiness. (Rubin). I decided to set some commandments for myself, following Rubins model. I set three commandments for myself; chill out, stop

procrastinating, and buy some happiness, with the ultimate goal of increasing my overall level of happiness. Although, due to time restrictions, I chose to divert from Rubins model of one commandment per month and chose instead to work on all of my commandments simultaneously throughout the past two months. My first commandment was to chill out. The main focus of this commandment was to remove stress from my life. Tal Ben-Shahar is a professor at Harvard University who teaches a class on happiness. In his documentary Happiness 101 with Tal Ben-Shahar, Ben-Shahar shows that 80 percent of college students are stressed and 45 percent are stressed to the point of depression. (Ben-Shahar). As a college student, I can support these statistics and I consider myself as part of the majority of college students who get stressed from trying to balance school, work, and social life, as well as any other factors that may contribute. In his documentary, Ben-Shahar speaks of the benefits of physical exercise as well as the benefits of deep breathing and meditation. (Ben-Shahar). I have always used working out and exercising as a stress reliever. I find something very therapeutic about pushing my body to its limits and increasing my potential. I wanted to increase my time in the gym and build on my preexisting anti-stress program. I started going to the gym seven days a week. I also started doing a sort of mini yoga session before my workouts, in which I would spend a few minutes stretching and practicing deep breathing exercises. During this time I focused on clearing my mind, just for a few minutes, and meditated. The results were exponential, I found myself eliminating more stress than ever before. In addition to removing stress, I wanted to work on not allowing little things to bother me. I was constantly finding myself freaking out and getting upset over things that shouldnt

have such a large control over me. For example, something as miniscule as misplacing my pen would drive me insane. I would end up throwing things off of my desk and around my room in attempt to find it. I found myself jumping from whatever the original stimulus was straight to getting upset in a very short amount of time. So in order to help chill out, I started to slow things down. If something was bothering me, I took a few deep breaths and started solving the situation in a calm and productive way. In my efforts to reduce stress in my life, I found that the ever growing stack of school work that I needed to finish was the main source of my stress. This leads to my second amendment which was to stop procrastinating. As with most college students, I am no stranger to procrastination. Over 70 percent of college students identify themselves as procrastinators. (Ben-Shahar, 32). I tend to keep pushing back my school work until I realize that it is all due the next morning and I give myself a mini heart attack. Studies show that procrastinators have higher levels of stress, a weaker immune system, poorer sleep, and, unsurprisingly, given all of that, lower levels of happiness. (Ben-Shahar, 32). I realized that if I could eliminate my procrastination problem, I would be able to remove a large portion of my stress and thus, increase my level of happiness. In an attempt to solve my procrastination problem, I started carrying a daily planner. I took it with me to every class and wrote down when my homework was due so that I wouldnt forget to do it and end up being over encumbered. This endeavor was ultimately unsuccessful for two reasons. Firstly, I did not like having to carry the planner around with me everywhere I went; I saw it as a sort of burden. And secondly, after I wrote down when my homework was due, I would put it away and not look at it again so I still did not end up doing my homework. As an alternative to the planner, I started using a program called Sticky Notes on my personal

computer. This program allowed me to stick virtual sticky notes on my computer screen which are practically unavoidable. These notes allowed me to schedule my homework out across multiple days so that I did not become overwhelmed. This in turn reduced my level of stress; I found that my first and second commandments went hand in hand. After a few weeks I started giving attention to my third commandment which was to buy some happiness. I was constantly finding myself passing up on opportunities to have fun with friends because I did not want to spend the money to do so. I knew that missing out on these opportunities was definitely not increasing my level of happiness. I decided to alter my monthly budget to allow more room for spending on entertainment and fun. My college tuition and rent for my apartment make up the majority of my monthly spending. Being that I could not make cuts in these areas, I needed to reduce spending in other areas of my budget if I was to increase my entertainment spending. After making a few cuts, particularly to my savings, I was able to over double my previous spending limit. After doing so, I felt much more comfortable going out with friends. I found myself spending a lot for quality time with my friends and having a lot more fun. I came to the realization that my third amendment of buying some happiness also fed into my first amendment of reducing stress. I found my life becoming more and more stress free every day. As my happiness project continued, I found it easier and easier to keep up with my commandments. After daily effort, they started turning into habits. Overall, I can definitely say that with the completion of my happiness project my level of happiness has increased and my level of stress has decreased dramatically. My daily life has become extraordinarily easier since I made a conscious effort to control of the 40 percent of my happiness. (Lyubomirsky). I will

continue my happiness project, and I encourage others to take control of the 40 percent of their happiness that is under their own control. (Lyubonirsky).

Works Cited Ben-Shahar, Tal. Choose the Life You Want: 101 Ways to Create Your Own Road to Happiness. New York: Experiment, 2012. Print. Ben-Shahar, Tal. Happiness 101 with Tal Ben-Shahar. Video. Youtube. vehumana, 29 Aug. 2012. Web. 8 Dec. 2013. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-RVECUWOGQ> Lyubomirsky, Sonja. The How of Happiness: A Scientific Approach to Getting the Life You Want. New York: Penguin, 2008. Print. Rubin, Gretchen. The Happiness Project: Or Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun. New York, NY: Harper, 2009. Print. The Key to Happiness in Your Hands. Sonja Lyubomirsky. University of California Riverside. 22 Jan. 2013. Web. 8 Dec. 2013. <http://www.ucr.edu/about/promise/lyubomirsky.html>

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