The Happiness Project: It’s Friday: time to think about YOUR Happiness Project. This week: Music meditation.

The Happiness Project

I’m working on a book, THE HAPPINESS PROJECT, a memoir of the year I spent test-driving the wisdom of the ages, the current scientific studies, and the lessons from popular culture about how to be happy--from Aristotle to Martin Seligman to Thoreau to Oprah. On this daily blog, I recount my adventures as I grapple with the challenge of being happier. THE HAPPINESS PROJECT will hit the shelves in December 2009 (Harper).

What Started Me Thinking

"Whoever is happy will make others happy, too." Mark Twain.
“There is no duty we so much underrate as the duty of being happy.” Robert Louis Stevenson
"Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things: But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her." Luke 10:41-42
“Imaginary evil is romantic and varied; real evil is gloomy, monotonous, barren, boring. Imaginary good is boring; real good is always new, marvelous, intoxicating.” Simone Weil
“What a wonderful life I’ve had! I only wish I’d realized it sooner.” Colette
“It is easy to be heavy: hard to be light.” G. K. Chesterton
“A man’s first care should be to avoid the reproaches of his own heart.” Joseph Addison
“Best is good. Better is best.” Lisa Grunwald
“Order is Heaven’s first law.” Alexander Pope

Happiness Theories I Reject

Flaubert: "To be stupid, and selfish, and to have good health are the three requirements for happiness; though if stupidity is lacking, the others are useless."
Vauvenargues: “There are men who are happy without knowing it.”
Eric Hoffer: “The search for happiness is one of the chief sources of unhappiness.”
Sartre: "Hell is other people."
Willa Cather: “One cannot divine nor forecast the conditions that will make happiness; one only stumbles upon them…”
Alexander Smith: “We are never happy; we can only remember that we were so once.”
John Stuart Mill: “Ask yourself whether you are happy, and you cease to be so.”

I’m working on my Happiness Project, and you should have one, too! Everyone’s project will look different, but it’s the rare person who can’t benefit. Join in -- no need to catch up, just jump in right now. Each Friday’s post will help you think about your own happiness project.

This week’s assignment is a bit goofy and overspecific: if you have a sweetheart, go to iTunes, download Fatboy Slim’s “Praise You,” and dance around the room while thinking about all the things you love and appreciate about your sweetheart.

Here’s why.

I’m not a huge music lover, but every once in a while, I fixate on a song I really love – for example, the Red Hot Chili Pepper’s "Under the Bridge."

The other day, while working in a diner, I overheard a song, "Praise You," that I love but had forgotten about. I’m proud to say that I now possess the expertise to go to iTunes, buy a song, and load it onto my iPod. A major technological triumph for me.

Listening to this song flooded me with tender feelings for the Big Man. Yes, we have gone through the hard times and the good! Yes, I have to praise him like I should!

So find a song you love that fills you with happy feelings of love, gratitude, energy, or nostalgia. It could be the Gershwin song, “They Can’t Take That Away From Me,” or the Talking Heads’ “And She Was,” or “My Favorite Things” from The Sound of Music, or some terrific new song that I, of course, have never heard of.

If you get up and dance around the room while you listen, you’ll get extra happiness points.

Research shows that listening to music is an extremely effective way to boost mood and energy. It is an excellent way to induce a mood – the way “Praise You” induces feelings of gratitude and appreciation in me.

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Comments

I love this idea! I'm thinking about making my husband a mix CD for Valentine's Day, which is also close to our anniversary, and "Praise You" might make the cut! We gave mix CDs as favors at our wedding years and years ago, so it's kind of a tradition of ours.

iTunes and iPods will never replace a good mix-gift, as far as I'm concerned.

Posted by: Jackie | January 18, 2008 at 07:24 PM

I have been appreciating your website for over a year now - and maybe this is the first comment I've made... I am feeling very overwhelmed at the moment about starting a new job and feeling I don't know enough... instead of ringing a friend and burdening them with my troubles, I came here... the music tip is a good reminder...I might go and listen to a favourite of mine "the day brings" by Brad. Thanks!

Posted by: Jo | January 18, 2008 at 08:27 PM

Great idea! I actully tend to make myself playlists of upbeat or inspiring music...I have a few different themes (uplifting, happy, thoughtful, etc.) and listen to them whenever I need a boost. And, really, the danceable stuff is the best!

Posted by: Jenn | January 19, 2008 at 01:49 AM

I love this

http://mcarthursrant.blogspot.com/2007/08/something-to-bragg-about-art-of.html

Posted by: Scott McArthur | January 19, 2008 at 07:40 AM

Great post! Very appropriate for me at the moment. I have just been given a BugToo alarm clock which I really wanted because I can load my favourite tunes into it and then wake up to a song that will inspire me to get up! My favourite song of all time to make me feel good is Good Fortune by PJ Harvey - I recommend it to you Gretchen! 'and I feel like some bird of paradise, my bad fortune slipping away, and I feel the innocence of a child, everybody's got something good to say...'

Posted by: AndreaC | January 19, 2008 at 08:36 AM

Very timely...I was really down yesterday evening and what brought me back around was a night spent watching my favorite concert DVD (Pearl Jam concert from Madison Square Garden).

Music has been and always will be my primary form of therapy. Escape. Energy. Relaxation. Peace.

Posted by: Alex | January 19, 2008 at 01:50 PM

Yes! I'm working on two very big life goals right now, and when I need a boost I listen to "Reach" by Gloria Estafan. It was the theme song for the 1996 summer Olympics. So uplifting!

Posted by: Cara | January 20, 2008 at 09:43 AM

Over the years I have had favorite music that helps me relax or adjust my mood. It seems to be a secret I rediscover as necessary, forgotten in between. In college it was Willie Nelson's Stardust album. A few years ago it was Norah Jones' "Come Away With Me". Latest song to reach my like that is Natasha Bedingfield's "Unwritten". The first two for mood adjustment and the last for some motivation.

Posted by: Glenn | January 24, 2008 at 02:26 PM

We like many of the same things. Look up Howie Day's "Perfect Time of Day".

Jim

Posted by: jim | February 01, 2008 at 01:52 AM

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