Lesson learnt : the Happiness Project ( Part 1 )

this is me writing again, because I have been wanting to do this review for quite sometime already.

so if you've been reading my post ( the three latest I guess ) , I mentioned about this book I am currently reading , The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin , to be honest its quite hard to finish them all in one go because so far, the only time I got to chill a bit and read is when I commute to class , or before bed time.

I wanted to get myself a copy of this. I asked my GE'EF in the USA to buy me one , the second hand would suffice. Because its just so expensive here sobs 

Even before bed time , its quite a contemplating feelings to read other books aside from revising the CLP notes ( because I had no good time to revise back all the notes too T.T Where is my free time where )

I have finished the second half of the book since I started reading from May chapter to December chapter lol then I moved to the first half . Now struggling to finish this one thing T.T 

I am quite peculiar with the fonts used for books, it definitely plays percent towards my interest in reading a book - I give a meh when I first flip the book - it Nanaz's friends book anyway. But not till the May chapter caught my attention - about friendship . 

Hence I start reading and found myself giggling in the LRT - sometimes make such a tense face when I am reading a book which talk about pursuing happiness 

But I've decided to write some insights I got from the book, even before I finished it because its worth sharing too.  

Why Part 1? because I hope I'll be able to write the second review - Well so far I am never succesful when it comes to second review haha. Because I know what I am writing is not doing any justice to the book as a whole. 

Pre notes 

Like any other books or articles I read, I always love to go towards the objectives of the writing, to get the vague idea on why something is being written or published. Perhaps its my way to engage more with the author or one of the easiest way to grasp about a journal ( like a short cut like that haha )

I love the pre notes for book on how the author first decided to write about this Happiness Project. 

Usually people who write things like this is perhaps someone who successfully escaped themselves from miseries , that in their dark days they figured many ways to escape from it. But the author is living a normal life and she felt that she's not living it up to the par on how she's supposed to live her life. 

Which seems relatable to me, I know I am living a pretty decent life. Because we're in that 'okay' phase, we tend to overlook the fact that we can actually be happier / or be at our happiest state most of the time, because we're doing okay. Its just so enlightening that the author is highlighting all those little details on things that makes your heart content - and living your life to the fullest . 

You don't necessarily need to wait for the time you hit rock bottom to start, just start now. 

Say good things about others. 

One of the thing that catches my attention is about friendship , about giving commentaries to people, and how our description for someone actually affects the way people see you. For example, when you commented on yourimpression about people, lets say you describe A to B saying that A is arrogant * on your first sight of meeting A * , B will tend to connotates 'being arrogant' to your personality instead. How amusing it is that there is such research being conducted. 

Come to think its logic though, and lets take a take-home message, to always try your best to see the good in people and to say good things too ( though sometimes it can't be helped because someone is indeed non-pleasing at the first meet ) 

Love the person, just the way they are 

Next, its about Love. Though the marriage part is quite not relatable to me , I love the points where the author re-highlight one of the common thing about relationship , which to love the person just the way they are, not the way you expect them to be. 

And sometimes because we dwell into someone's love story or based on articles trying to give the ideas on how to know whether someone is the right one for you, we have all these imaginations or may I say expectation on how our loved ones should behave. 

The author's husband did mentioned that he don't understand why his wife is doing this Happiness Project, because to him, she's happy. Like why even bother writing and getting into all sorts of readings - projecting happiness.  

And the key is always about not changing others because its ( almost ) impossible, but change yourself, hence it may indirectly affect on how people will later treat you. 

To live the moment 

Most of us is living with the fallacy of 'the end / the result' will give you ultimate happiness , and it is so relatable to me in this err weight loss journey ( hahahah because I don't know if I'm loosing or gaining more weight now ) , I used to write a pretty long notes about what I wanted to tell the whole world when I am in the 'normal' size . I wanted to tell people that I am happy in whatever sizes I used to be in, even in my current size or even the future.

But later I come to think, why should I wait for something that I can share now. Because you might not know how soon you'll reach to that end point of being in normal size and all these while you only got to bottle the frustration you had when reading through other people's journey about weigh loss. 

Live the moment, if you're happy on that particular time, acknowledge that you're happy , you don't need to wait for the result or the end to come , what if the end you desired never happened, that will surely leave you in such a despair and all the emotions you've been experiencing before, go wasted and unappreciated. 

For now that are the take-home messages I got so far, I wish to finish the book soon and reread everything again, not skipping the parts ( I skipped July chapter I guess , its about money ) oh well i acknowledge that money is definitely one source of happiness because I know how tight is my life now, but as for financial wise, personally, insyaAllah I am doing fine and blessed insyaAllah. 

If you have the capacity of time and money, get yourself this book, its relatively easy to relate to your life, with hints of psychological researches and quotes from other authors.

I definitely recommend this to people who's trying to figure on how they can take one leap forward in their life , about making a happy life to being content. 

You'll find it mesmerising when you started to realize how petty unnoticed points in life actually makes a great difference in your life when you start to appreciate and embrace its presence in your life. 

I should really start thinking about, at least publishing a book? ( oh there's this one point that says about be someone who supports others to THINK BIG ! ) 

drop me a comment ( it can be anonymously too ) if you think I should. I miss getting comments ( hahahah on the other hand you got more unreplied * is this even a word * comments haha sorry people )

Najwa and her ( not yet ) figured Happiness Project haha

So far, I guess I've started my own happiness project, which for now it would be taking care of myself - doing all sorts of facial skincare and not to forget applying lotion onto my hands HAHA I was really contemplating on how rough it was, is it even a girls' hand ohgads ( Iamshosaddd haha 😑 ) 

Anyway it's my parents 28th anniversary today ( er yesterday? 20/1/1990 ), and I kept thinking how amusing it was to reach 28 years being together when you on the other hand trying to even start the cover page of your love story seems hard enough haha lol this is not me trying to sound upset my life  because I am not miahahaha but that is the truth anyway. Be patient Najwa , the best is yet to come insyaallah 😙

I bought myself a packet of Samyang and the last time I had that very hot noodles, few months back? On the other hand I have packets of noodles which I bought since October? which I haven't yet touch ugh.

 Love, the'ann