AUG 8, 24 .. HAPPINESS IS..
NATIONAL TODAY.. Is the source of much, but not 100% of, the information on my “Days”.
Nice Thoughts To Follow..
Happiness Happens Day, is on August the 8th.
Read on to see how happiness happens and see how you can make it happen today.
Happiness — it’s what people want most out of life. If we aren’t actively looking for it, we are talking about it, spreading it, dreaming about it, or, hopefully, experiencing it. For many, it’s a goal to be happy.
Then, there are those who always just seem happy. How do they do it? Is it naturally in them or do they work at it?
The Secret Society of Happy People, founded in 1998 by Pamela Gail Johnson..
Was originally a ‘secret’ society to allow members to talk about everything that made them happy because they were genuinely happy people, but they did so secretly so as not to allow overhearing Debbie Downers to rain on their parade.
Guess What? They have a website and still exist!
From this came their slogan..
“Are you happier than you admit you are?”
They created Admit You’re Happy Day in 1999, which eventually evolved to Happiness Happens Day. In 2000, they declared the month of August as Happiness Happens Month because, well, why limit a celebration of happiness to one day? Every year, a theme is chosen for Happiness Happens Month. In 2019, they encouraged everyone to acknowledge people who make them smile, also known as our ‘Smile Starters.’
The Society offers many tools and resources to promote happiness, personally, at work, and in the community. For example, they created a Happiness Counter to help you recognize daily happy moments that tend to be overlooked. It lists 31 ‘types’ of happiness that people often feel or experience throughout the day. At the end of each day, you can reflect on how many of them you experienced and realize you had more moments of happiness than you acknowledged and embraced during the day.
Over the years, more and more people have talked about happiness — how to get happy, be happy, find happiness, spread happiness. With that, the popularity of the Society grew — so much so, they outgrew the need for secrecy! So, in 2019, the group became simply the Society of Happy People.
Some Happiness Tid-Bits..
In the early 1880’s, Women’s social clubs begin holding social events referred to as ‘Happy Hour Club’ or ‘Happy Hour Social Club’ — the concept continues to this day, thankfully.
In 1912 Happy Birthday to You was written. The lyrics and melody to the famous birthday song appear in print for the first time with no credit references or copyrights.
January 15, 1974.. “Happy Days”.. The wildly popular television sitcom airs for the first time, running through 1984. Who can forget “The Fonz”?
In 1977.. McDonald’s introduces a packaged children’s meal, complete with a toy, in the Kansas City market — it rolls out nationally in 1979.
Adults smile, on average, 20 times per day, which is a fraction of that of a child who smiles 400 times per day! Let’s not lose that smile factor as adults. As Truvy (Dolly Parton) said in “Steel Magnolias,” “Smile, it increases your face value!”
On a scale of one to three, with one being ‘not too happy,’ Americans average 2.18. Interestingly, since the 1970s, Republicans have been consistently happier than Democrats and the trend lines do not change meaningfully based on who occupies the White House.
Make a list of things that make you happy and things you see as Happiness Zappers.
Knowing the Happiness Zappers may help you avoid them or, at least, better prepare for responding to them. Also, when you recognize Happiness Zappers for what they are, you can more quickly reframe your state of mind and move thoughts to the list of things that make you happy.
Expressing gratitude leads to an overall optimistic attitude; it is consistently and strongly correlated to feelings of happiness.
Volunteer. Giving of your time to help others has been shown to decrease feelings of depression and improve optimism and a sense of worth.
Give. We’ve all heard the phrase: it is better to give than to receive — yes, giving is another action that leads to happiness and benefits the giver as much, if not more, than the receive.
The below fellow sure looks happy!
Jumping For Joy!
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Smiling.. Cap and Patti
The original, the first writing of this Post, was totally lost when Midphase, our Hosting Service, suspended dotnet!
This version is a total ‘re-writing of the original Post’.
2 thoughts on “AUG 8, 24 .. HAPPINESS IS..”
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Oh that picture is so cute and adorable! It’s good to be happy. I may have mentioned this before but chocolate and coffee make me happy. Also, animals. Dogs show they are happy or hopeful with their tail wagging. Cats not so much but mine are adorable and make me smile and laugh. And occasionally cuss. Nothing like a cat barfing at 4 AM … But challenges come from all the things that bring us happiness. My parents were a great example. They appreciated what they had and they enjoyed life. I hope you are enjoying life more now that things seem to be working. That was a long outage! How aggravating to have to recreate so many missing days.
No doubt about dogs really showing when they are happy and pleased. A cat (probably throwing up hair balls at 4AM) is not so happy a thing for sure. Thanks so very VERY much Kathleen for all of your support. It really means a lot to us. Cap and Patti