MY Happiness Project: Month 1

Gretchen Rubin’s first chapter in “The Happiness Project” is all about boosting energy because she found in her research that “being happy energizes you, and at the same time, having more energy makes it easier for you to engage in activities – like socializing and exercise – that boost happiness.”

She tackles “both the physical and mental aspects of energy” by making sure to get more sleep and exercise AND to bring a sense of outer order to her surroundings in order to bring inner peace.

Okay, if I didn’t already have a twin I would seriously consider the fact that we were separated at birth! I absolutely agree with her assessment and the fact that the mental aspect of energy is just as important as the physical.

In fact, I’ve recently come to grips with the fact that I need more sleep now than when I was in my 20’s and that it is finally time to break my bad sleeping habits. I’m definitely less focused at work when I have those super sleepy days and less inclined to do anything productive (like exercise or work) when I get home.

I also have recently started to redecorate my home and streamline the tchotchkes and visual clutter in order to find some inner Zen. I still love stuff and could never become a minimalist, but I’m starting to enjoy the negative space too. And another bonus is that when the apartment feels clean and organized I feel like I can tackle any project…which is definitely necessary these days!

So with all that in mind, I’ve compiled the following five ways that I’m going to boost my energy over the next month:

1. Get more (consistent) sleep by going to bed regularly at an earlier time
2. Get more exercise by working out 2-3 times each week
3. Clear the visual clutter by redecorating and donating all the excess to Salvation Army or Goodwill
4. Clear the mental clutter by finally clearing out the 16 (yes SIXTEEN) pages of new and old emails in my hotmail account and staying on top of them by checking email regularly and unsubscribing from all the spam
5. Last but not least, I’m borrowing another idea from Gretchen and am going to tackle at least one nagging task - which will be to finalize the selling of my car with the DMV and County (yes I have put that off for over three months, sigh)

I can’t wait to get started!

Do you have any other ideas for boosting energy? What would your list look like??