100 happy days!

When I first saw this challenge I was more than excited to try it out. I am all for being happy and I have always wanted to analyse what are the things that can make one happy. I saw this challenge floating around on instagram so I went online to find out more about it.

Being continuously happy for 100 days in a row may seemed quite difficult. Let’s all face it, life is a not a bed of roses and there are always days when anger and sadness overwhelms you. Its part of life, its always made up of a variety of emotions.

I was sceptical at first. Even though I may seem cheerful and happy most of the time, there are times when I feel like throwing things to the wall in anger or sob uncontrollably whenever I am stuck in unfavourable situations. Can I do it? Can I be happy for 100 days in a row?

I looked back at my instagram posts for the past few months and I realised that I have been uploading the things that made me happy. Be it meet up with friends, a kind gesture, yummy food or random conversations that touched my heart, it was all there, shared with my friends and followers of my instagram account. I have always felt more comfortable sharing on instagram than on facebook. I am not sure why I felt the instagramers were always less judgemental towards me.

I decided to go for it. Yup, I have been pondering over my definition of happiness for a few months so this challenge is a good platform for me. I posted on my instagram to announce and invited whoever who wanted to join me. Out of over 400 people in my list of followers, only 2 people stepped up to this challenge. One was Fidah and the other was my greedy buddy Rena. Yay!

I started the challenge on 5 March, a few days before I left for umrah. I could have waited until I come back from umrah to start this challenge but I felt that I should not wait when this concerns my happiness.

100 days went by too quickly! I do keep track of this closely. On certain days when I am too busy, I am reminded whenever I see Rena or Fidah posting on instagram. Thank you, thats why this challenge works better when you do it as a group. We may started together but our posts and our reasons of happiness differs.

Looking back, here are the things that made me happy. Its really interesting because I did not plan for it to be this way. I merely wanted to see a pattern in my definition of happiness.

1. Family (Blood is always thicker than water right?)

2. Friends (What would I do without friends?)

3. My students! (Yes they do make me smile with their antics!)

4. My colleagues (They make the overwhelming work bearable!)

5. Being able to do the things I love (dance, fangirling lol) and being with the people who share the same crazy passion as me!

6. Kind and thoughtful gestures by friends who know what I like

7. Food!! (Because I am greedy food lover)

8. Cat friends! (What’s not to love?)

9. Special events. In March, I left for 11 days of umrah and that really helped me start this challenge right. My heart was swelling in happiness everyday when I was there.

10. To be able to blog! Yes, being able to write is one of my greatest gift! I admit I am not a fantastic writer but writing helps to me express and clear my thoughts. After coming back from umrah, I decided to make my blog public via wordpress and I think that was one of the best decision I have ever made. Occasionally I have friends who come to me and tell me about what I wrote and shared and how it had helped them. It made me very happy that my words were able to help someone.

Thanks to instagram and this challenge, I was able to publicise the blog and even though it started off as a travel blog (because I wanted to compile all my travelling experiences), I decided to share some book reviews and some personal reflections on it too. I write to express, not impress so while I am not really bothered by who reads it, its always nice when people tell me they read my blog.

That was it! Top 10 things that made this challenge doable! Was it difficult? Yes! On some days I felt like the world was darker and nothing could make me smile. It was on those days that I felt really challenged. I had to sit and think of all the blessings bestowed onto me. I had to overturn my defeated attitude and replace it with gratitude.

And I did.

Towards the end of the 100 days challenge, I discovered that 71% of the people who embarked on this failed. Wow, that was a big percentage!

So proud of myself and I am also proud of my greedy buddy Rena! We did it! Yay! As for Fidah, she mistook the challenge because she thought it did not have to be consecutive. Lol. Oh, its all right, you can always do it again next time!

With this challenge completed, it inspired me to spread this 100 days of happiness to my students! I seem to see more students who are unhappy about their life and frankly, its worrying.

I started ‘Project Happiness’ last week with the students and I will write about it soon!