“Happiness Project” setbacks

Setback is a bit premature, I suppose, as I haven’t even figured out how I want to approach this project other than to know that I would love to incorporate many bits and pieces of The Happiness Project into my life. In her book, Gretchen (I have a hard time calling her Ms. Rubin, as she refers to herself as Gretchen throughout the book) says that she was not tackling her Happiness Project as part of a mid-life crisis. However, many of the questions she raised are the questions that I consider to be part of my mid-life crisis, and I think I can apply her strategies towards resolving my own crisis and come out a more centered, happier person on the other end.

I was so inspired by her book that not only did I give it five stars in Goodreads (my first I think), I actually went out and bought it this weekend. I very rarely buy books, other than travel guides, cookbooks, and tech-type manuals. But this book? I had to have my own copy to mark up, read and re-read, chew over. This book came to me at the right time and place. At other times in my life, I don’t know that I would have loved it as much. I might have even been as annoyed by it as I was by “Eat, Pray, Love”. But it spoke to me.

While I’m in the very, very preliminary stages of working out how to launch my own “Happiness Project”, I can see that I’ve already started mine as I have made some resolutions recently that certainly apply to this, most notably “Be authentic”, which is Gretchen’s motto (but rephrased as “Be Gretchen.”), which seems to be appearing as a theme in my posts lately.

But the pain and medications I’m on right now have me suffering setbacks in pursuing this project before I’ve even done the preliminary planning. I am at the point where I can’t imagine walking again or ever being pain-free. My emotions fall apart in a moment, whether moving to crying or to getting horridly angry. I’m trying to remind myself that “This too shall pass.” and that my typical non-steroid altered emotions are much more manageable. How can I ever tackle any of the challenges I want to set for myself when I am in this state?

I keep saying “This too shall pass.”, but I’m starting to lose hope.

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