It’s Friday: time to think about YOUR Happiness Project. This week: Sing in the morning.

It’s Friday: time to think about YOUR Happiness Project. This week: Sing in the morning.

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.

One of my resolutions is to “Sing in the morning.” It’s hard both to sing and to maintain a grouchy mood, and it sets a happy tone for everyone in my family — particularly in my case, because I’m tone deaf and my audience finds my singing a source of great hilarity.

The idea to “Sing in the morning” came from the Big Girl, a few years ago.

“What did you do at school today?” I asked the Big Girl.

“Well, we all talked about how our parents wake us up in the morning.”

“What did you say?” I prodded, with curiosity and trepidation.

“With a good-morning song.”

Why she said this, I don’t know, because I’d only done that a few times. After hearing her comment, though, I began singing a good-morning song every day.

What a nice habit, to start the day with a good-morning song!

One of the most powerful happiness-project lessons, and the Third of my Twelve Commandments, is to “Act the way I want to feel.” We think that actions follow feelings, but often, feelings follow actions. By deliberately starting the day by singing – that is, by acting cheerful, light-hearted, and energetic – I can help generate those feelings.

Also, because of the psychological phenomenon of “emotional contagion,” we “catch” the emotions of other people. If I can manage to act light-hearted and energetic, I can infect the other members of my family with good cheer.

The morning sets the tone for the whole day, so I’ve found that it’s worth making a special effort to make mornings run smoothly – whether that means organizing everyone’s stuff the night before, doing the “evening tidy-up” before going to bed so the apartment isn’t too messy when we emerge in the morning, or singing a garbled version of “Let’s Go Fly a Kite” as I get the Little Girl up from her crib.

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One of the greatest challenges to happiness is pain. It's very, very hard to be happy when you're in pain, and managing pain is very difficult. I was fascinated to read this story on Gimundo, about a virtual reality game called SnowWorld that's used to help burn victims manage their pain. It turns out that just as pain affects happiness, happiness (which can take the form of an engaging distraction) also affects pain.

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Comments

[Tootie]

What a good idea! You're right - I always feel upbeat after I sing in the shower. (By the way, the Singing in the Rain photo is perfect. I love that movie, and it always makes me feel like dancing - or at least smiling.)

[Ester]

" I don't sing because I'm happy; I'm happy because I sing".
William James

[Paula]

I heartily second this advice. Singing is really energizing and happy-making. It is also the reason that many yoga teachers lead chants in class--it's not so much the words you're chanting (although they're good, too!) it's the feeling of joy and connectedness that it creates.

[Veerniliel]

I have also experienced the power of singing in the morning. During the holidays, I'm a monitor in holiday camps. In one of them, we've had very harsh two first weeks, and by the third week, because of several factors things went better. On the first morning of that last week, with the other monitors, starting from a joke, we decided to awake the kids and teenagers with a song, sang out loud in the corridor (there were just us). Some of the youngsters complained about us singing not that well and not that right, but actually they looked happier, and some of them sang along with us. The bonus is that we didn't need to go and take them out of their bed. So we continued every morning singing a new song and they even tried to guess what we would sing the next morning.
So I totally agree with you, singing in the morning can really be a good option :)

[Ella]

I'm not a singing person, but your other advice about mornings is spot on. For the past few weeks I've been doing as much as possible the night before - making my older daughter's lunch, rounding up library books and getting them into the backpack, picking out the kids' clothes, putting my work papers and blackberry back in my work bag so I don't have to hunt them down in the morning, etc. Now I have time to sit down with my coffee and talk to my children while they eat breakfast, instead of racing around trying to get organized. Which is a much happier start to the day. Great tip!!

[Era]

Not sure anyone wants to hear my singing, especially in the morning. But thanks for reminding me to keep a song in my heart. That - I can do!