[Editor’s Note: Re-post Alert — because celebrating is never a bad idea!]

Week #224 – CELEBRATE!

For many people…2018 was another challenging year. Health issues, death, divorce, job changes, financial problems, stressful news cycles…the list goes on and on.

Believe me…I know how it feels to want to kick an entire year to the curb.

The end of the calendar year seems to be a natural time to look back and reflect on the highs, the lows, what happened, what went wrong, and how we can fix it in the new year ahead.

This is exactly why in January, I challenge everyone to look forward into 2018 — and start keeping track of the good stuff.

Because it’s hard to love your life when it’s so easy to look back and come up with all the bad things that happened. We have to, as Rob’s friend Rob Nicholson said in a Facebook post at the end of 2014:

“Keep moving forward and celebrate and revel in what we have!”

So I challenged you at the beginning of this year to, once again, look ahead…WAY ahead.

To December 31st of 2018.

By the way…that’s Monday!

And I asked — Where do you want to be next year at this time?

Do you remember your answer? If not, don’t feel bad. Because I said at that time that I knew one thing for sure — It would take REMINDERS.

If you were one of the ones that kept track of your achievements, high points, and happy moments — please remember to SHARE and CELEBRATE them with the ones you love!

If you didn’t keep track, don’t worry. Take some time this week to go back through your calendar, your emails, your phone — whatever it takes to come up with enough reminders of all that you accomplished and did right this year!

Because I promise you…you did! And there is probably a lot to CELEBRATE!

Your Happyness Challenge for the week ahead: CELEBRATE the completion of another year — and another trip around the sun! SHARE your successes with others — and ENCOURAGE others to do the same! There will be plenty of time to look ahead and set new goals, focus on new targets, and dream new dreams for the year ahead. For this weekend — look back, and find things to LOVE about 2018!

Bonus Challenge: Don’t count on yourself to remember everything about the new year going forward! Make a plan to curate the wins just as much as the losses so that you have a complete inventory come December 31st of 2019. Come up with a system for recording your achievements, successes, highlights, and otherwise happy times THROUGHOUT the new year! The most obvious way is to keep a dated list — in a journal, on your computer, via email, or on your phone — where you take time each day to review your activities and take note of anything special or significant. I keep a running list by date and habitually recount the day’s activities. To be honest, most days it’s pretty mundane — but the habit assures that when something notable happens I’m going to capture and remember it. Here are some other ideas from last year’s post:

Gratitude Tree — write what you’re grateful for on little shapes and fill an inside tree or wall mural up throughout the year (works in classrooms, too!).

Photo-journal — use cell-phone photos in a specific file or on Instagram to keep track of accomplishments. Or print them out to create a physical album you can flip through.

The Joy Jar or Happyness Jar! The idea is simple: you start on January 1st with an empty jar in a prominent location in your home — and you start dropping notes in it throughout the year about things that went well, things that make you happy, things you’re grateful for, achieved, or accomplished. At the end of the year you have a personal collection of happy memories to review — or immediate access throughout the year when you need a lift to face a challenge! One woman even collaged them on a monthly basis as a type of word-cloud to record as a journal.

The possibilities are endless — but the idea is always the same: make it a point to collect the good stuff! Because we need more of that. More focus on the wins. More focus on what’s right. More focus on loving our lives — so that we can live our lives more fully.

Spread Happyness — love your life, THIS year AND next! (CELEBRATE and ENCOURAGE others to do the same!)

12/28/18 by Grace Church
© Grace Church
grace@spreadhappyness.com

Week #223 – Have a “Happy Heart-mas!”

Greetings Happyness Tribe — Happy Holidays, Blessed Solstice, and Merry Christmas to all!

Christmas arrives next week! (And…we’re throwing in a full moon just for good measure!)

Many of you know I have been keeping up with my own “Gratitude Challenge” in the 33 days leading up to Christmas Eve. (And, I’ll be “Going for 40” through New Year’s Day!)  It’s a way for me to ensure I’m keeping my own heart happy during one of the most stressful times of the year.

As I wrote during the first Gratitude Challenge (Week #119), keeping focused on finding one thing a day to be grateful for actually primes me for keeping an eye out ALL DAY for the things that I appreciate, the things that are going well, and the things that make my heart happy.

Whatever holidays you are celebrating, we’re about to enter one of the most stressful weeks of the year.  If you are grieving a loss, a relocation, or a big life change — it may be even more stressful than usual. Before you focus on trying to make others happy (or expecting others to magically return the favor) — take some time to figure out what makes YOUR own heart happy!

Which reminded me of this challenge from Week #14 — just a few weeks after Rob passed:

Your Happyness Challenge for the week ahead: Have a “Happy Heart-mas!”  It will be easy to focus on the things that go wrong this holiday week. Instead, pay attention to what makes your heart happy!  It may be as simple as your silly niece or nephew (or cat or dog), words to an old song that take you back, an irreverent or inappropriate joke you can share only with dear friend, or a quiet star-lit night…or maybe it’s a bigger challenge like limiting your time to only people you enjoy, getting that extra sleep your body is craving, or saying no to something you honestly don’t want to do.  Take note of the moments when you feel your heart lift and your body relax.  Keep a list of what makes you happy…and check it.  Twice! (And then do more of THAT!)

It may be the difference between naughty and nice this holiday week!

Spread Happyness — tell me, what makes YOUR heart happy?

I wish each and every one of you a “Happy Heart-mas!”

12/21/18 by Grace Church
© Grace Church
grace@spreadhappyness.com

Week #222 – Three Weeks to Happyness: Permission to “Take a Pass.”

Greetings Happyness Tribe!

I was going to re-post one of my favorite Happyness Spreader posts this week — encouraging you to open your door to a neighbor this holiday and “love those to the right and left of you.”

(You can re-visit that post here, where I talk with Sarah Harmeyer about her Neighbor’s Table project.)

But you know what?  It dawned on me that that there are a whole lot of you right now who couldn’t possibly add one more thing to your list this week.

And so, I want to encourage you to take a pass.  Cross something off your list — not because it’s done, but because it’s not going to get done. (Or maybe because you didn’t really want to do it anyway.)

This is a big act of rebellion — especially for us “old reliables” who always seem to meet the deadline, show up, or fulfill the obligation even when we don’t want to.

It can be scary — because if we aren’t someone that people can count on, then who are we?

The answer: Big-Hearted, Well-Intended, Happyness Spreaders — who need to take a pass this week!  😉

Your Happyness Challenge for the Week Ahead: TAKE A PASS!  Consider this permission to say no, play hookie, skip that thing, call and cancel (well ahead of time of course, with regrets).  Bonus points for being okay with someone else who is doing the same!!!  As I heard someone say recently, “disappointment isn’t deadly.” It’s uncomfortable — yes. But so is over-extending ourselves to the point of exhaustion.   

(I’ll be joining you by NOT writing a long post this week!)

Spread Happyness — “Take a Pass” this week!  (And let me know how you do!)

12/14/18 by Grace Church
© Grace Church
grace@spreadhappyness.com

Week #221 – Happyness: It’s in the Mail!  (3,000 Smiles and STILL Counting…with Renee Eisman)

Greetings Happyness Tribe!

Always pleased to re-visit a Happyness in Action story — and this week I’m especially excited to follow-up on Renee Eisman’s 2018 goal of sending 2,700 cards to seniors this year alone.

Here’s a hint: She didn’t meet it…SHE BLEW PAST IT!!! 

During 2016’s Ten Weeks to Happyness, I shined a spotlight on Hopatcong, NJ native Renee Eisman — who is the Mail Program Manager for Bring Smiles to Seniors.  “Bring Smiles” is a non-profit in Odessa, FL that works with schools and organizations to decorate cards for seniors that are in nursing homes, assisted living facilities, and homebound.

Their motto is “One card, one smile at a time.”

In 2017 they sent over 18,810 cards.  Renee was responsible for more than 2,435 of those!!!  That’s almost 40 cards a week!

This year, despite concern in January about being able to meet demand for their goal of 20,000 cards in 2018, Bring Smiles has sent OVER 35,000 cards to-date in over 200 senior communities across all 50 states!

Let me repeat that:
– OVER 35,000 cards sent
– to OVER 200 senior communities
– ACROSS all 50 STATES!!!

That’s a lot of smiles!!!

This week I followed up with Renee to get an update on her story and found out that she sent her 3,000th card for 2018…THAT VERY SAME DAY!

(That’s more than 5,000 cards since she got started.)

Here’s an update on her story:

Renee’s story began about five years ago now — when she first moved to Florida.  “I fell and hit my head two months after relocating.”  Renee suffered a subdural hematoma (bleeding of the brain).  Surgery and recovery followed.  “I never really had the chance to look for work.”

So Renee started mailing cards and letters to friends and family — to pass the time.

It wasn’t too soon after that Renee crossed paths with Ron Tyson (founder of Bring Smiles to Seniors) and joined the Bring Smiles team, working up to sending 150/200 cards per month in 2017…and up to 250 cards per month in 2018 to not only meet but exceed her goal for this year!

[Visit my original post here to learn the full story about how Renee got started!]

But Renee’s mailbox isn’t just a one-way street!  We chatted via Messenger about what 2018 has brought TO her:

“I took on two elderly pen pals this year. One in his own home in Rhode Island (he is 86) and a 70-year-old woman in nursing facility in Florida. My biggest challenge this year has been trying to keep up with reply mail while still sending from my regular list!”

Bring Smiles was also nominated for Ellen & Cheerios’ “One Million Acts of Good” Campaign!
https://www.ellentube.com/cheerios/community/making-seniors-smile.html  (“Vote often,” says Renee!)

And the biggest highlight of 2018 may have been going to Florida to meet the other Bring Smiles volunteers and be there with its founder, Ron Tyson, who received the Tampa
Bay Lightning Community Hero Award.

“All of us volunteers had never met and it was first time we were all together with Ron. Hopefully, it won’t be the last time.”

Renee just went back to working full-time in November…but she isn’t going to let that stop her!  “I’m hoping to reach out to local schools this year, to get help filling out and decorating cards to keep up with my mailings.”

Bring Smiles operates 100% on donations for all expenses and supplies so if you are interested in donating cards, postage, or supplies — or decorating and sending cards by yourself or with your group/organization — here’s everything you need to know:

Your Happyness Challenge for the Week Ahead: BRING SMILES TO SENIORS!  Visit “Bring Smiles to Seniors” on the Web or on Facebook to find out how you can send supplies or support their mission to send “Happy Mail” to seniors, shut-ins, or children in need.  Look for the pinned post entitled “HOW TO PARTICIPATE” — or reach out to Renee at the contact info below.  Above all, set your own goal of sending “HAPPY MAIL” in 2019 — and send smiles, “one card at a time!”

It’s been five years since the accident that started Renee on this journey.  I asked her what Happyness means to her THIS year:

“I’m grateful everyday to be alive and living life to the fullest!”

Spread Happyness — send a smile!  BRING SMILES TO SENIORS!

(And if you or someone you know is hosting their own local charity event or fundraiser that Spreads Happyness directly to those who need it — please let me know!  I’d love to feature them on the blog!)

12/7/18 by Grace Church
© Grace Church
grace@spreadhappyness.com

(PS: Special thanks once again to Renee Eisman for taking the time to share her story for my original post and update me this week!  To learn more about Bring Smiles to Seniors, visit them on the web at www.bringsmilestoseniors.com — or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/bringsmilestoseniors — or contact Renee directly at bringsmiles@outlook.com.)