At the beginning of 2014, I read an article by Elizabeth Gilbert, who wrote Eat, Pray, Love and The Signature of All Things. She suggested keeping a happiness jar for the year. Basically, you start with an empty jar and put into it a note of anything that makes you happy or grateful during the year. I always have a daily positive thinking calendar, so used the back of the used pages for my notes.
I was busy running a New Year’s Day celebration on 1 January 2015, but was itching to open my happiness jar. There were fifty three notes in the container and an analysis shows that four categories of things make me happy – Achievement – 15, Family Time – 15, Health – 10 and Writing – 13. This is fascinating.
In my Achievement category, eight notes relate to my personal achievements, mainly to do with my swimming lessons (jumping in, swimming a length of proper breast stroke, spending time in the deep end of the pool) and writing, but one covers learning to use loom bands and another my love of selling jewellery at the school fete. The one, which will probably make you laugh, is my joy at learning the roll on method of putting on a quilt cover – almost as exciting as learning how to fold a fitted sheet!
Most of the other notes in the Achievement category relate to little son – progress and prizes at school, settling into secondary school and cooking a Victoria sandwich cake from a recipe without any help.
The final note in this group relates to the publication of Janice Preston’s debut novel, Mary and the Marquis. I was so proud of her.
Family Time covers lovely holidays and days out. New Year’s Day and Christmas Day celebrations. This group emphasises to me how lucky I am to have a lovely family.
The Health category covers the health of family members and myself. My joy that little son’s knee cap wasn’t broken after a fall at school (the casualty nurse suspected it was before the x-ray). The sigh of relief when big son’s suspect mole was okay. The miracle that my hubbie didn’t suffer serious injury after a fall down fourteen tube station steps in London. My minor operation that wasn’t as bad as I’d feared.
Considering that I nearly gave up writing in 2014, the Writing category relates solely to me. It covers my joy at completing the NaNoWriMo writing challenge to complete 50,000 words in November, the writing courses and events I’ve attended and enjoyed – including the RNA conference, a Sue Moorcroft course, an Alison May course. Having an uplifting Twitter conversation with the lovely Iona Grey. Finishing my novel to send to the RNA New Writers’ Scheme and then a later note celebrating the positive comments on that manuscript. The amazing appearance on the charity book stall in Sainsbury’s of a book on the very subject covered by my work in progress – a clear sign I was not meant to give up writing. The encouragement and fun provided by a small group of writers in my local area who meet to beat the doubt crows.
I could go on, but don’t want to bore you. I have found the process of keeping and analysing a happiness jar, very uplifting and, needless to say, I have started one for 2015 already. I recommend the process to you.
Morton S. Gray - Author 
A Happiness Jar – what a lovely idea, Morton.
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Fantastic! I loved hearing about your notes. This year I've started one of my own and now I can't wait to read them all in a years time 🙂 Happy New Year, Morton!
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Great post, Morton. We should all do this and maybe make a collage as a permanent reminder of all the good stuff that sometimes gets overshadowed in the year. I'm off to find a jar!
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I know a lot of people in Peace Corps who used to do that and they said it was amazing in keeping them sane.
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I can't claim it as my idea, I read it on an Elizabeth Gilbert post, but it has been interesting to see what moved me enough to write a note to put in the jar. I'm looking forward to opening my 2015 jar already!
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Hi Bella. You could put a photo or picture in the jar to represent your happiness moment and then it would be easy to make a happiness collage! Good luck with your jar. Mx
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Hi Gwen, I must admit that on occasions the jar process helped me to see the positives in situations that had been pretty scary, so I suppose you could say I thought more positively. The posts don't have to be big things, they may relate to a beautiful sky or a quiet day with the family.
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I wait to see how you get on. One tip is to keep the jar in a prominent place so that you remember to use it! Good luck.
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what a unique idea, Morton. that sounds like a lot of fun and so uplifting. I must try it…. I love your blog and will follow with interest.
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I kept one in 2013, and deeply regret not doing it again in 2014, so i'm definitely going to do it again this year…
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It's a great idea! I'm going to give it a try as well.
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What a great idea! I really should start doing this – I'm very good at finding things to moan about and need regular reminding that life isn't such a bad place after all…
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That is such a brilliant idea, Morton – well done!
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A bit late coming to this one but what a brilliant idea! I'm glad you found so many things to be happy about and that you decided to continue writing. Good, too, that you had a positive NWS report. Keep up the good work!
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Oooo thank you for the comment, Pat. I hope you have started your happiness jar!
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Hi Maria. I hope you are finding lots of happy things to put into your 2015 jar. I did wonder whether to do mine this year, but I'm already glad that I did. Somehow writing a note for the jar seems to cement the happy feeling of the event or thing – like a happiness genie in a jar! Have fun.
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Hi Sue. Look forward to hearing how you are getting on with the idea.
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Hi Jane. I purposely used my jar last year to turn round and see the learning in some negative events as well as recording happy ones. For example, some of the family health scares last year made me appreciate the person concerned and their contribution to my life. Hope you give it a go.
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Hi Flowerpot. You always seem to be off on exciting adventures. I'm sure you could find lots of things to put in your jar. Have fun.
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Hi Anne. Good luck with your book!
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Something to put into my 2015 happiness jar – all the lovely comments and reactions I've had to this blog post. Thank you!
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