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My Personal Happiness Project

McDaniel College is a beautiful place -- and that's something worth savoring.

McDaniel College is a beautiful place — and that’s something worth savoring.

On November 6, Dr. Jaime Kurtz from James Madison University came to campus to discuss happiness and savoring college life. She made a lot of interesting points about being mindful of the good things in our lives. After all, people get used to the good things just as they get used to the bad, so we become desensitized to the beautiful views on campus and the attentiveness of the professors, things not everyone has in their college experience.

She suggested that students practice ways to focus on the good things and savor moments. By doing this, their overall happiness level will increase. There will still be ups and downs, of course, but the average happiness score will go up.

I have decided to start implementing one of her ideas. She said to keep a journal and write in it once or twice a week, no more, about things that make you happy. You can choose to narrow the topic down to one thing or to keep it in general terms and write about things that made you happy in the preceding days.

I’ll be starting this journal later today and will be choosing a topic for every entry.

You can do the same exercise with photography, spending 15 minutes or so photographing things you think are beautiful or represent things that make you happy.

One of the things I love about attending McDaniel is that there’s always something going on on campus that is inspirational, makes me think, or gives me the opportunity for growth. I don’t have to go longer than a day without something standing out to me, and every few weeks there’s something that I know will stick with me for a long time. These things come from professors, friends, and strangers, but they’re all useful and go into making me who I am.

This talk was one of those things, and I’m glad I was able to attend. I can’t imagine myself thinking about happiness in exactly the same way again.

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