The Happy Jar! An
idea I found online. The concept is this:
each week, at the end of the week, you pick the best part of your week. You
take a small slip of paper and write this highlight of your week down, fold up
the paper, and put it in a jar. Do this
every week for a year and at the end of the year, you can read through all the
great moments you had.
Awwwwwww sooooooo cuttteeeeeee
But seriously . . . I decided this was a great idea. I did make some adjustments to the underlying
rules of the Happy Jar. First of all, I
can put in more that one slip of paper per week. Hell, I hope there a lot of weeks where I
can't figure out what the best moment was because there were SO MANY!
Secondly, I can read through these highlights at any time. The idea is to remind yourself of good times
and to be grateful. I am guessing I may
need that reminder before December 31st, 2017.
I keep the jar out on my counter with a stack of paper in
front of it, ready at any time for me to write something down. Even just the sight of the jar is a reminder
to be thinking positively. Rather than
thinking about what may be stressing me out or what may not be going well, I
see the jar and it refocuses me. There
have been 4 full weeks so far in 2017 and I have 4 small slips of paper in the
jar.
The first highlight was a work-related one. I had come back from a hefty Christmas
vacation and a long New Years weekend. Needless
to say I was not energized to come back to work. Before leaving for vacation, I had given out
Christmas cards to some of my colleagues and friends at work. When I came back, one of my colleagues
thanked me for the card and said it had meant so much to him. This particular colleague has been through a
lot and is starting his life over again.
At one time, he was homeless, doing drugs, and living on the
streets. He has accomplished so much,
starting a new job, being sober, living a healthy lifestyle, and reuniting with his
family. He thanked me so genuinely for
the card and said he had showed it to his mom when he was home for the
holidays. She was so grateful for how
some of his colleagues had gathered around her son and helped him to get passed
a difficult time in his life. So, she
wanted to give me a thank you gift and he handed me a bottle of perfume she
wanted me to have. An amazing way to start the year.
The 2nd and 3rd slips of paper were
about great yoga classes I had taken (I cant get more basic white girl than I
just did in this sentence).
And the 4th was something my boyfriend said to me
that meant a lot.
These four highlights, for the most part, are small and
forgettable moments. In a few months, I
probably won’t be able to remember what was written on these first 4four slips
of paper. But, I think the purpose of
the Happy Jar is to recount these small moments and realize that these small
slips of paper are what really brighten my week. It is a concept to really look at those small
things (isn’t that what Blink 182 was trying to tell us?). While we are looking forward and/or trying so
hard to be present, there is no room to look back. This is a great way to focus energy on the
past in a positive way. You are looking
back only to pick out the positive. That
is why this is not a Jar of Crappy Shit—that jar would be HUGE!
I encourage you to try the Happy Jar and see if it helps you
(and me) live more positively.
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