Happiness Project: NW Philly style

I have to admit I was a little stuck on what to write about for today’s column. After not having an immediate seedling of thought to start with, I started to look for one. I listened to NPR intently, scoured my blog subscriptions for something shiny, and Googled resourcefully looking for a thread. Nothing was doing it for me.

 

But what has been doing it for me lately is fostering happiness. Doing things that make me happy and being happy doing them.

 

The Happiness Project brought national attention to the idea of happiness as something we have the right to attain, not only pursue. Here, Gretchen Rubin tests her own theories of happiness and does a great job of illustrating how it is all tied to productivity, sense of self and interaction with others.

 

I wanted to write about enjoying life because that’s all I can really think about lately. Balance and enjoying the moment. Enjoying it in a way to let the emotions and changes of daily life absorbed so that there can be understanding of the experience.

I am pretty sure that through happiness we can find confidence because if we are happy, we have less reason to gripe about distracting issues. This, I believe, makes us better parents both in our interaction with our kids and modeling behavior for theme to carry into their adult lives.

 

So, where did this week’s inspiration come? A delightful few hours on Germantown Avenue. I can’t say I ever spend a whole afternoon there- trips there are usually for a specific destination.

 

However on this day, after picking my daughter up at school, we took the stroller to  Phew! for a tuneup then enjoyed a treat al fresco at Food For All. After that, we ventured to the Mt. Airy Playground where we ran into some of her school friends to frolic with. After the park, we got a latte at InFusion then got back in to the car to continue on with our errands.

 

The day happened naturally and we thoroughly enjoyed it all. A normal day. On the flip side, I could have found something to complain about I am sure, but that would have denied us this blog post. But most importantly, it would have also denied myself and my daughter the good feeling that can some easily with simply enjoying the day and being happy.

Northwest Philly Parents is a partnership between Newsworks and Germantown Avenue Parents.