Recently my book club read "The Happiness Project" and by read, I mean, I was the only one who finished the book. We decided to call our club "Booze and Books" since it seems most book clubs, like ours, really get together just to have an excuse to crack a few bottles of Jesus Juice and have some LADY TIME.

(Do you think I should implement a drinking game while reading my blog? Every time I say LADY you have to take a sip of wine?? Bwahahaha. I just hope you aren't reading my blog in the morning in that event! We'll be sending you to rehab faster that Syliva's family on Intervention! If you don't know Sylvia's work, GOOGLE IT! You're welcome!)

Though I didn't find the book incredibly inspirational, I did take away a few quotes for my journal and a few good mentalities to adapt into my every days life.

Here are some quotables that inspired my day and I hope it does the same for you!

“Happiness is how, not a what. A talent, not an object.”

                   ~Gretchen Rubin

“It is by studying the little things that we attain the great art of having as little misery, and as much happiness as possible.”

                  ~Samuel Johnson

“Action seems to follow feeling, but really acting and feeling go together; and by regulating the action, which is under the more direct control of the will, we can indirectly regulate the feeling, which is not.”   ~William James

“Fake it til you feel it! Act the way you want to feel.”- Gretchen Rubin

“Happiness is neither virtue no pleasure nor this thing nor that thing, but simply growth. We are happy when we are growing.”

               ~William Butler Yeats

“Whatever you admire in others is something that is nascent in yourself, but that you have not yet brought into being. Knowing what you admire in others is a wonderful mirror into your deepest, as yet unborn, self. “ -      Jungian Theory

Ah, the constant tug between striving and accepting. I’ve never figured this out, except to say that it seems a balance of necessary opposites. And yes it can be sad, while being busy and running out and fulfilling all things on my dreams/desires list I am not just accepting myself as is and letting me be me as is. I’m pushing myself. And yet if I don’t push myself I find I can be dissatisfied with things about me and my life. I figure there is a time for both pursuing and accepting.

             ~The Happiness Project

I know I spend a lot of time analyzing the looking into life and it's questions. What else are we here on this earth for? The thing that I come back to over and over is BALANCE. Nothing lasts forever - no human life, no fleeting feeling, or passing emotion... but what we want to hold onto is JOY. HAPPINESS. We all have different things that make us excited to live each day and I highly encourage you to find those things out for yourself and do them for YOURSELF. You don't need someone else to come and take your hand and show you how to live. You don't need a partner in crime to take yourself to that new place you have been wanting to eat at or to that french film playing at the local art house. Take yourself. Happiness comes from within us, not from outside of us and it is high time we worked on that relationship with OURSELVES. I have been on that band wagon since my 5 year relationship came to an end. The thing I wanted to learn and perfect was how to be with ME. Now, that is not to say that we can't enjoy our lady time or not go on to have a healthy relationship with another individual - human connection is KEY! I just think my happiness, as well as yours, has to stem from a love of self. So, cheers to that! To US!

xoxo
Her LadyMess