If you've read my posts on gratitude, you know I like to take the time to keep a gratitude journal (Graditude365 app) to celebrate the positive things in my life. I also like to do lists, goal lists, and cleaning list (Tody app). Now I'm working on Moorea Seal's 52 lists in 52 weeks project. But first let me show you this awesome to do list pad on the right.  It's a 6x9 tear off pad that you can list your daily to dos on it, plus keep track of important times, meal planning, and track water consumption.

If you've read Gretchen Rubin's The Happiness Project, then you'll also enjoy The Gratitude Diaries by Janice Kaplan. Pretty much similar context, they both spend a year being more grateful and dedicated each month to a different thing. Her ideas fit in nicely with The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up  which encouraged me to take a lot at how much shopping I do. She uses the examples of people lining up to buy new iphones because they think it will make them happy. One she did was stop complaining about the weather as it didn't change her day, but it changed how she experienced it. She even uses gratitude as a tool to lose weight! Favorite quotes from the book include the following.

"Grateful to learn that I don't need "stuff" to make me happy."

"Lucky to jump off the wanting-more treadmill."

 "Material possessions are never quite as satisfying as we think they'll be. People get more lasting joy from experiences (such as vacations) than from objects."

"Enjoying an activity (such as dining out) that made you grateful also makes you less materialistic. So if you're trying to increase your gratitude, tilt toward experiential consumption."

"Materialism has been consistently related to lower levels of life satisfaction. The idea that stuff, stuff, and more stuff won't make us happy seems to be catching on."

"Gratitude to have enough. Not want 10% more (salary or closet space)."

"Spending on others makes you more satisfied than spending on yourself."

"If through gratitude, you create a positive mood, you reinforce the brain pathways that will then generate more positive feelings."

"You can never be happy if you waste time frustrated by circumstance you can't change."

"When we appreciate what we have, we are more likely to be satisfied and less likely to be unhappy."

"Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not. Remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for."

"Look for a positive in every event, you can decide to feel joy.You're grateful for how you remember an experience rather than what actually happened."

"Any job has its good points and bad, but focusing on the negatives promises only a sour experience. Making an effort to zero in on the pleasures (however hard to find) can make most jobs tolerably sweet."

'Gratitude keeps us well because it is an antidote to stress. When you are grateful, all the signposts of stress, like anger anxiety, and worry, diminish. Gratitude lowers stress."

"As with your career, gratitude can motivate you in your weight and fitness. You can lose it easily. You've been that weight before, so you know you can do it."

"Dedicate five minutes of your day to believing you can lose weight and being thankful you can. Eliminate negative self-talk."

"Be grateful that you're strong, grateful that you can buy healthy food, grateful that it's gorgeous weather and you can take a walk."

"Taking a picture of your food to post on Instagram or Facebook makes you look at food as something special, that you are grateful with what you plan to eat."

"Often when think we want food, we're really hungry for friendship, love, compassion, and gratitude."

One of the traits of happy people is keeping a gratitude journal so I wanted to jot down all of my highlights from the past couple months.

I attended Fashion for Paws which is a fundraising event for the Humane Society where they have a doggie runway show. I finally got to try the trend of crop tops with this outfit.


Now that the weather is warming up I’m getting back in the groove of filling my calendar with fitness classes! In March I completed the Pure Barre challenge of 20 classes in 30 days and it was tough! It's a ballet inspired work out that uses light weights. Last fall I did a month of The Bar Method so I wanted to see how they compare.


In April I took 10 yoga classes. This month I signed up for SolidCore (which is done on a machine similar to the Pilates reformer) and Flywheel (which is similar to SoulCycle).

I took two paint classes, here are my master pieces:


I enjoyed the Cherry Blossoms in the short time they were here and ran in the Cherry Blossom race.

I saw the musical Memphis which was fantastic! It's loosely based on Memphis disc jockey Dewey Phillips, one of the first white DJs to play black music in the 1950s.


I got addicted to the TV show Secrets and Lies, which made my Sunday evenings fun.

I read a lot of great books this spring, check out my spring reading list, 3 must read memoirs, and audible review.

I got the iphone6 and am still trying to get used to where the buttons are. lol

Tomorrow I'm doing a Cinco de Mayo Zumba class. I'm looking forward to going to a comedy show this weekend!

Take stock of what you have instead of what’s missing.The best tip I've read to being happy is not to think you'll be happy when you're skinny, rich,  married, or buy whatever, but to realize that you can be happy right now by appreciating what you do have instead of always thinking about what you don't have. Don't think about what's missing in your life, think about what really matters. I keep a gratitude journal when I travel and I want to recommend the site Grateful 160 as a great way to maintain a daily gratitude journal for yourself, it's a fantastic way to attract more positive things into your life. The way it works is everyday the website sends you an email asking you what you're thankful for today. So it encourages you to look for positives in everything. At the end of the week it sends you an email with a recap of what you've said. It helps you keep everything in perspective.

Lent is upon us and being half Polish I wanted to share with you our tradition to start Lent. We eat donuts called Paczki  because traditionally they were baked to  use up all the sugar, eggs and fruit in the house, because their consumption was forbidden during Lent. Now the tradition of eating Paczki coincides with Fat Tuesday/Mardi Gras. As you know Catholics are supposed to give up one thing during Lent and to abstain from consuming  meat, just fish. I've noticed amongst my friends alcohol is usually the thing chosen to give up during Lent. Whether you celebrate Lent or not, dedicating some time to a good purpose or service is always beneficial physically, mentally as well as spiritually.
Here's a great website listing something to give up during lent. 

Joel Osteen says being unhappy won't change anything for the better. Being negative and sour isn't going to improve anything either. You might as well choose to be happy and enjoy your life! Happiness is a decision you make, not an emotion you feel. So don't worry about things you can't change, just appreciate today.

In an interview with Dr. Oz in January 2012, Goldie Hawn shared her secrets to staying young: maintaining a sunny personality. "When you are in a healthier state of mind, the body reacts. So, when you're feeling joyful the body actually will react that way . . . So I say, cut the negative, focus on the positive, habituate the positive thinking. And in doing so, your neurobiology begins to fire differently because that's what your brain likes."

Brian Tracy is one of my favorite authors and motivational speakers. He wrote this amazing best selling  book called Eat That Frog which provides the 21 most effective methods for conquering procrastination and accomplishing more. It's a short and fast read at only 128 pages but very concise. It's a small book so it easily fits into your purse to read whenever you're waiting for the train. Even if you don't think you have a procrastination problem, it just gives you the steps to be more organized in your life and helpful in achieving your goals. The meaning behind the title of the book is that if you have a to do list and do your hardest task first, that will give you the most satisfaction for the day because your biggest challenge is out of the way.

I saw this challenge on the Random Acts of Kindness website. From time to time I'll post some challenge ideas that I will be participating in as well. Today's challenge is to smile at 5 strangers, could be in the hallway at work, at the mall, the grocery store, wherever your day takes you!

I visited North Carolina a year ago and was surprised how everyone says hi to everyone! Perfect strangers saying hi to someone else in a mall parking lot. Definitely doesn't happen where I live! lol 

I know when people smile at me I always think it's a nice gesture and brings a little joy to my day. So give it a try because you never know what kind of day someone is having and your smile could lift their spirits up a bit.