Today was my last day of posting on twitter for #100happydays. In case you have missed or ignored the social media trend of #100happydays, you can go to the website. The gist is, every day post something that made you happy for 100 days. Technically, you are supposed to post a picture of what made you happy, which I did not comply with because either I forgot to get a picture of the thing that made me happy or the thing that made me happy defied picture taking (like my son doing some crazy thing).

I started this at the beginning of October when I had some personal issues that were getting me down. I felt like I was focusing so much on the negative that I was missing the positive. So I literally did some sort of Internet search about happiness. I don’t recall what I searched for, if it was “how can I be happier?” or something else but I came upon 100happydays.com. Once I read the website I realized I had seen other people doing it on social media, posting pictures with the hashtag #100happydays but had not understood what was going on. The website claimed that people felt happier and more fulfilled after doing the project.

So I thought “why not.” I set a reminder on my phone to post and then I did it. Some days I posted the next day, so I wouldn’t say I was super diligent. I also, as I mentioned earlier, did not usually post pictures. I am not a big picture taker and usually I didn’t post until the end of the day after whatever I was posting about had happened etc.

Somedays it was HARD to think of something that made me happy. If the day had been particularly bad, the badness would so overshadow I would be struggling to think of what to post. But I learned from those days that even if the day over all felt like I came out behind something always happened that had made me a little happy, even if it was making myself coffee that tasted particularly good.

And sometimes I felt like I was being repetitive. But I think from that I also learned about myself, the things that day after day make me happy: my crazy family, my awesome friends, good food and coffee. (I almost put coffee first, only because I need coffee first thing everyday.)

Overall, I thought the project was a success for me. It made me think about my day and focus on the positives rather than dwell on something negative. I am actually thinking now that I did #100happydays, I may do some sort of personal journal to write my happy thoughts in.

I doubt I would be half as diligent without a particular challenge. But I think just knowing that over the course of 100 days I was ALWAYS able to think of at least one thing that had made me smile, has taught me that my life is good, I should appreciate and no day is all bad.

I HIGHLY recommend everyone give it a try, even if it is 100 secret happy days you just write in your diary. Realizing that good things happen to you everyday that make you smile, laugh or feel good goes a long way to realizing the bad is always followed by good. Always.