Project Happiness: September - Love

Happy September Everyone!

August was such a juicy month in the life of Mandy.

I began a year-long Happiness Project and while I may not have called every day a success in terms of meeting my resolutions, I feel good about how it all ended up. Each day I was able to start new and put my best foot forward. My pants are fitting better, my stomach isn't as upset with me, I'm more fun to be around (Maybe?), I feel lighter and I'm more grateful for the little things. Vitality was a great theme to begin with as I enter my second year of Peace Corps! (Time is zoooooming!)

September's theme is: Love

So what does that mean in terms of my resolutions?  

I have 3 that I'm working towards this month. Here they are:

1. Love yourself. Loving others starts with loving yourself, so I want to do things to show myself love - practicing yoga, doing art, reading, being a good teacher, friend and human. This is sometimes really hard. I just read somewhere that it's good to take a few moments every day and picture someone who you feel loves you very much, then to picture someone who you love very much and want to see happy and then remember those feelings and turn them back on yourself.

2. Give proofs of love. This doesn't mean going out and buying a bunch of gifts - there are other ways to show people and things that you love them. A nice message, a hug, a high five... I'm going to strive to look for ways every day to show love.

3. Thank more. A "thank you" goes so far and it's easy to forget to thank others for the little things that they do for us, but it's the little things that are sometimes the most important. (P.S. Thanks for reading my blog!)

How do you show love to yourself and others? 

How is your September starting out?

I'm off to watch the first regular season NFL football game at a little cafe on the water. It's a beautiful winter-y day here in the South Pacific.

Other random things:

I'm in a contest to win a yoga teacher scholarship. If you already haven't voted, click here. Much love! 

 Beautiful words from the Dalai Lama:

"Blessing must arise from within your own mind. It is not something that comes from outside. When the positive qualities of your mind increase and the negativities decrease, that is what blessing means. The Tibetan word for blessing means transforming into magnificent potential. Therefore blessing refers to the development of virtuous qualities you did not previously have and the improvement of those good qualities. So actual blessing is received when the minds virtuous attributes gain strength and its defective characteristics weaken or deteriorate."

 

Sidenote: I should be back to my regular blogging self now, unless the Tongan interwebs deter this quest.

They (I don't know who they is) just finished burrying a huge internet cable beneath the ocean so we can get internet that is just a tish faster. I mean it's cool when I have time to clean my entire house while I wait for gmail to load, but it'd also be cool to get little boost too.