5 Ways to Get Yourself Out of a Funk

May 19, 2014May 22, 2020by happsters14 Comments

It’s normal to be in a bad mood every now and then. You may even feel like you want to hide like this kitten at times:

But if you notice that you aren’t snapping out of your funk for a few days, try these 5 tips to shake your bad mood:

1) Journal

5 Ways to Get Yourself Out of a Funk

Writing down your thoughts is a great way to let go of something you’ve been holding onto. Another one of my favorite things to do is to write down 3 things I’m grateful for. If you don’t want to write them down, just think about them. It’s surprising how effective it can be!

2) Watch something that will make you laugh

Laughter reduces stress and releases endorphins into our body.

3) Hang out with a friend

Spend some quality time with a friend. Bonus: Give them a bear hug! Hugging someone releases oxytocin (also known as “the cuddle hormone”), making us feel better.

4) Go for a walk

5 Ways to Get Yourself Out of a Funk

Researchers at Cal State Long Beach found that there was a clear and strong relationship between the number of steps people took and their overall mood and energy level.

5) Lend a helping hand

Photography by Jack Bates

Help someone out or pay them a compliment. It’s helpful to take the focus off of yourself so you can get some perspective.

What do you normally do to get yourself out of a funk? Let me know in the comments!

Happy Explosion

Cookie Monster – Happy Explosion

May 17, 2014October 28, 2015by happsters4 Comments

Happy Weekend! Last week, I had an incredible pay it forward coffee experience. This week, my pay it forward Happy Explosion involved my favorite food: cookies 🙂

Continue reading “Cookie Monster – Happy Explosion” →

Happiness, Kindness

5 (More) Happiness Movements You Need to Know About

May 13, 2014May 22, 2020by happsters6 Comments

Last year I posted about a few Happiness Movements I was loving at the time, so I thought it would be fun to make an updated list because there are so many amazing ones out there! Here we go:

1) The Chalk Project

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I stumbled upon Chalk Project on Instagram and have been a fan ever since. Their purpose is to spread messages of kindness and inspiration. They “create uplifting messages with chalk on neighborhood sidewalks, with hopes that this anonymous message will collide with the person that needs it most.”

Learn more about Chalk Project here: http://www.chalkproject.com/ Continue reading “5 (More) Happiness Movements You Need to Know About” →

Happiness

5 of the Sweetest Mom Quotes in Honor of Mother’s Day

May 11, 2014May 16, 2014by happsters11 Comments

Happy Mother’s Day to all of you moms – You rock! And a very special Happy Mother’s Day shout out to my mom (I know you’re reading this)!

Here are a few other my favorite quotes about moms in honor of Mother’s Day:

#1: “Most mothers are instinctive philosophers.” – Harriet Beecher Stowe

Continue reading “5 of the Sweetest Mom Quotes in Honor of Mother’s Day” →

Awesome Things Thursday, Happy Explosion

Awesome Things Thursday

May 8, 2014October 28, 2015by happsters6 Comments

Happy Almost Mother’s Day! We are getting together at my parent’s house for brunch. Do you have any fun plansa? Here’s what I’m loving this week:

1. The Happiest Facts To Make You Smile (I always love a good BuzzFeed video)

2. This granola I made the other day. I got the recipe from Billy’s mom and it’s heavenly!

3. My experience paying it forward in the first week of the Happy Explosion. It gave me such an adrenaline rush. I’ll post more about it on Saturday!

4. Hanging with IDEA World BlogFest presenter, Gina. I haven’t blogged about BlogFest yet, but I’ve been helping to work on it behind the scenes for months. I can’t wait until it’s here! I’m especially excited to see the Keynote, Jillian Michaels :). Hope to meet you there!

5. This new flower I got for my adorable pot that Ashleigh gave me. Thanks Ash!

Spring Flowers

6. The 25 Best Pieces Of Advice A Mom Can Give

7. @golden_budweiser on Instagram. You will not be sorry you followed this adorable pup!

How is your week going? What are your plans for Mother’s Day? Let me know in the comments!

Happy Explosion

May 3, 2014May 3, 2014by happsters33 Comments

As you may know, I created this blog in an effort to spread as much happiness as possible. The world needs more happy people!

I had this new idea while falling asleep the other night (when some of my best ideas come to me) and I got so excited that I could barely fall asleep. I’ve decided to create something called the “Happy Explosion”. Here’s how it will work:

1) Every week I’m going to spread happiness in a different way and leave it up to YOU to tell me how.

2) I’ll give you some options (you can come up with your own if you want!) and I’ll take the most popular happy act from the comments to do.

3) I’ll announce what happy act I’m going to do on Monday and then post about the experience on the next Saturday.

4) If you have a blog, I’d love for you to post your random act of happiness there. I’ll post a link up on Saturday’s post so we can all see each other’s Happy Explosions of the week!

How does that sound? Ready for the first week?

Happy Explosion: Week 1

Should we:

A) Buy the person’s coffee behind us

B) Leave a note of gratitude for our mailman

C) Leave a sweet treat on a co-workers desk

D) You choose

You can use the button below on your blog if you want to participate in the Happy Explosion!

Just copy/paste the code below to add it to your blog:

<a href="http://wp.me/p37fK9-E6">

<img class="aligncenter wp-image-2465"

src="https://happsters.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/he.jpg?w=300"

alt="happyexplosion" width="400" height="254" /></a>

Let me know in the comments what you think we should do for the first week of “Happy Explosion”! I’ll have a post up on Monday with the winner so we can all get to spreading happiness ASAP!

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Not an official Happster yet? Become one and get free happy notes mailed to you here.

Happiness

Top 10 Happiest Vertical Gardens

April 29, 2014November 10, 2017by happsters23 Comments

Lately I’ve been slightly obsessed with living walls/vertical gardens. The first time I saw one on Pinterest I was hooked. Then I started noticing them around town and decided to create one in my own house!

Here are the 10 of happiest vertical gardens I’ve seen:

1. Living wall by Patrick Blanc including felt and rock wool.

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2. The B&Q vertical garden at the 2011 Chelsea Flower Show.

Source

3. Love this garden in Ibiza, Spain.

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4. Amazing vertical garden – Terrain At Styers – Glen Mills, PA.

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5. A pocket garden created by Jamie Durie.

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6. What a dining room!

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7. The largest living wall in North America: Semiahmoo Library.

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8. Herb wall in the kitchen.

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9. Living wall at the Carlton Residence.

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10. Vertical garden in Caixa Forum, Madrid.

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And just for fun…Here’s our living room vertical garden!

Do you have space at your house to garden? Which one of these is your favorite? Let me know in the comments!

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Happy Weekend Pics

April 27, 2014April 27, 2014by happsters17 Comments

Hope you had a beautiful weekend! Here are a few snapshots from mine.

Enough work. Time to play.

Pallet succulent garden we made from an old pallet.

Beach fun.

Billy checking the waves – “Look at those lefts!”

The beach down the street from us.

Huge pieces of art at the Little Italy Art Fair.

Bought a cute “home sweet home” sign with a heart over San Diego. Now I just need to decide where to hang it!

Couldn’t pass up the living wall photo op.

What did you do this weekend? Did you have time to hang out with friends and family?

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Happiness, Positive Mantras

Tips for a Great Morning, Every Morning

April 26, 2014October 28, 2015by happsters24 Comments

What are some of the first things you do each morning when you wake up? Recently, I’ve been really conscious of what I choose to do when I open my eyes in the morning.

I go through phases of reaching for my phone on my bedside table to see the time and then getting sucked into reading work email and checking social media while still in bed. Since I’m a social media manager, I look at the Twitter and Facebook accounts that I manage at work and then check my own personal ones. Sometimes I would center myself with some morning mantras or meditate, but it wasn’t a daily routine.

Three weeks ago I made a rule for myself that I would leave my phone in the other room and commit to some new morning rituals. Note: I am a fairly early-riser so I have about an hour of extra time before I need to get ready for work in the morning.

Here are the rituals I try to do each morning. I get to about 5 of the 6 each day.

1. Think of 3 things I’m grateful for.

2. Meditate

3. Read a few pages of a book. Right now I’m reading The Power of Self-Healing by Dr. Fabrizio Mancini.

4. Do some stretching exercises/yoga.

Photo of me and Billy at the Wanderlust Festival

5. Go for a morning walk around my neighborhood (and sometimes down to the beach!).

6. Eat breakfast

Morning Rituals

What does your morning routine consist of? Let me know in the comments!

#imahappster, Happiness, Happiness Tips

Your Happiness News for the Week

April 5, 2014October 28, 2015by happsters7 Comments

Happy Saturday, friends! I thought it would be fun to do a round-up of all the best articles about happiness that were published in the last week. Enjoy!

1) 12 Ways To Be Happier At Work In Less Than 10 Minutes

In this article, Sharon Salzberg breaks down the key to workplace happiness. One of my favorite suggestions is to find ways to “break down the momentum” of the day. Read more here.

2) 43 Of The Happiest Little Kids In The Whole Wide World

The cutest and happiest kids you’ll ever see. You are guaranteed to smile while browsing through these photos. See them here.

3) 9 Ridiculously Simple Ways To Feel Happier Today

Sonja Lyubomirsky, Ph.D., a professor of psychology at the University of California Riverside, suggests simple things to do to increase your happiness. A few recommendations including smiling, expressing gratitude, and walking outside. Read more here.

4) Spend Your Money on THIS to Be Happier

A new study found that while Americans tend to believe that material goods provide better value, buying “life experiences” actually makes Americans happier than buying material possessions. Read more here.

5) Discover a kingdom where happiness rules

A look inside Bhutan, where “Gross National Happiness is more important than “Gross National Product”. I especially enjoyed this excerpt from the article: “The concept is evident in the day-to-day life of the people, from the regular meditation and reflective gardening that’s built into the school curriculum, to the charming road signs that line the main roads. These run the gamut from encouraging (“Life is a journey! Complete it!”) to paternal (“This is a highway, not a runway!”). Even the graffiti is upbeat: In Thimpu, I read a white scrawl that read, ‘Life is not a race.'” Read more here.

Have some happy news to share? Leave a comment below!

P.S. Get daily inspiration at http://www.instagram.com/happsters.