Anyways, it was a lovely evening. And I really wanted to write down my thoughts while they were fresh on my mind so that I could remember them and refer back to them often. It's been a goal of mine to journal and write down my thoughts more, and so here I am.
Our theme for the evening was "The Happiness Project". There is a book that it was based off of, but our activity chair took it more in a direction that is LDS and christ related. It was really nice to sit down with other women and discuss happiness and how to become happier people.
Some of the Principles of Happiness that we came up with and discussed were:
- It takes effort to be happy. It's something you have to work at and try to do.
- Enjoy it now. Enjoy your life now.
- Everyone can be happy.
- It's a choice to be happy.
- Exercise and working towards personal health can make you a happier person.
- Service towards others brings happiness. Losing yourself in the service of others, often brings you the most happiness.
- Prayer: Opening a relationship with heavenly father through prayer brings happiness and we should also pray to be happy.
- Happy people are selfless.
- The atonement is healing. That healing can bring you happiness. Christ is and brings happiness.
- Heavenly Father has given us everything here, every tool that we need to make ourselves happy.
- It's important to not be cynical, but uplifting, positive and happy.
"Unclutter Your Life" by Elder William R. Bradford, of the Seventy, May 1992 Ensign
Unclutter your life and get back to the basics. The basics that we identified in our meeting are:
- Scripture Study (personal, family and in your marriage)
- Prayer (personal, family and in your marriage)
- Exercise, taking care of your body
- Go to all church meetings
- Fasting
- Gratitude journal, recognizing your blessings
- Family Home Evening
But a good point was made that there are certain things that need to be done "no matter what". Your list of basics above should be done, no matter what. Before pinterest time, leisure tv watching, even cleaning your home. NO MATTER WHAT. Another favorite quote from the night for me was:
"We give our lives to that which we give our time."How true is that statement. Just ponder it for a minute and where do you spend your time?
"Of Things that Matter Most" by President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, General Conference October 2010
If turbulence is happening in your life, don't speed through it, slow down and change your focus. Important places to focus are:
- God
- Family
- Fellow-men
- Ourselves
A few of the other talks we briefly touched on were:
When it came to goal setting, a sister shared with us something that I thought was really interesting. She shared about how some research or looking had been done about when you were goal setting and if you were to take the time to visualize how you might fail at that goal and then make a plan now on how you were going to recover from that failure than you were more liking to be successful in meeting that goal.
One of the greatest examples that I thought was shared through the night was the story of Nephi. After being commanded to leave his homeland, travel in the wilderness without any of his riches or items from home, be scrutinized by his brothers, not knowing how but being commanded to build a boat to sail far across the ocean (almost being thrown overboard by his brothers), to only then be brought to the promised land, starting with nothing, having his father die, and having his brothers leave him because they want to kill him, etc. Him and his people built a temple and "lived after the manner of happiness." What a faithful man. Being happy through something that most, if not all of us will never experience in this life. What an example to look up to.
There were other challenges extended and experiences shared that I'm really happy to be going home with. My life was definitely uplifted by attending this activity. I only hope to take the challenges, words, and experiences and remember them throughout this year and my life.
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