This Saturday see’s us celebrate International day of happiness, a day to focus on the good. To focus on the positive and acknowledge the importance of being happy. Today I want to look at how we all went about finding happiness in a year of chaos.
A year ago today
The 18th March 2020. A date that kinda changed everything. Northern Ireland had announced they were closing schools. Corona virus had been bubbling away for a few months but suddenly it was taking over.
We sat in our school office on a Wednesday afternoon, discussing the news from NI. Genuinely believing that we would be shut for a few weeks. The fact that Ireland were already talking about being closed until September completely rocked our office. When I say my mouth dropped open for more than a minute, I am not exaggerating at all. Then the news broke that Gavin Williamson and BoJo were holding a press conference that night. We knew exactly what was coming!
In reality we had NO idea what we were about to face. A year later it still doesn’t quite feel real that we are still living in this chaos.
International day of Happiness
Happiness is one of my favourite subjects to talk about. All you have to do is search the word happiness in the search bar up there and you’ll see just how much! One of my favourite posts is 5 small steps to happier you. It is definitely a worthy celebration day and one that is needed so much right now.
The theme for this years International day of happiness is Keep calm. Stay Wise. Be Kind and I don’t think a theme has ever been more appropriate! It certainly feels that these 3 statements pretty much sum up how most of us dealt with lock down. Most of the time anyway!
Finding happiness in a year of chaos
So why should we use this years Happiness day to look back?
For me, I can’t write off a year. A year of my life, a year in which my children aged one whole year and changed so quickly. A year where we all lost so much. We can’t move forward and not acknowledge what 2020-21 took from us, but I don’t think pretending it didn’t happen is not a wise move.
We can certainly grieve for this time. Some of us have experienced huge loss in the last year. A loss that’ll not dissipate just because the end is sight.
This post is not about forgetting that, being kind and understanding that other’s will have had a very experience over the last year. The aim of this post is to reflect and look back on the good. On those overwhelmingly happy moments that we will have experienced. But also to look forward to the happiness that awaits us.
What bought happiness in 2020
Community and Kindness
It became a buzz word fairly quickly. We were all experiencing something together. No matter what our situation, where we lived or what we were doing. The whole world was living this. It felt like a monumental historic event that we were all watching unfold.
Gary Barlow was singing to us weekly, Chris Moyles DJ-ing from his home, a 100 year old man was raising millions for the NHS. We stood on our doorsteps and clapped thanks for the NHS, and we truly meant it. We painted rainbows on our houses. We walked for an hour day and were genuinely pleased to move out the way for cheery strangers.
Closer to home, I spoke to neighbours that I have only ever swapped parcels with before. I donated food to the families at the school I work in. I watched as the small town I live in came together to provide care packages for those in need.
Seeing all these amazing acts of love and care made my heart feel full.
Time
Never in my working life have I really found the balance between work and life. Lock down forced me to do this.
Of course I was still working for 8 hours a day. But suddenly I could spend all day with my family. Yes OK we fought over school work, who was making the next coffee and which of us had to do the washing up. But we had time, an endless amount of time it felt like.
Once school and work were out for the week though, the time was ours. No interruptions, just pure family time. Lock down forced us to slow down a little. Even those who continued to work full time would find themselves with more time. We all life such busy lives, always filling our diaries until they are ready to burst. With no where to go and nothing to do. It was a time to embrace the chill!
Filling my spare time with things that made me happy certainly made the whole experience much easier to bear.
Home
Home became the office, school, the cinema, restaurants, play area, gym, library, our safety and a million other things. It’s an awful lot to expect of one place, but our homes, on the whole, lived up to all we were putting it through.
We got used to being at home. Spent time renovating, decorating and falling in love with our space. Learning to adapt to a life where home was suddenly everything. I often felt like I am never at home, but not any more. I’d almost rather stay in now, I’ve become a home-body and it brings me so much happiness.
Streaming platforms
Let’s be honest, most of us have now completed Netflix right? Disney+ landed days after lockdown was announced and even Amazon prime upped its game.
What a time to be alive! TV at our finger tips, box set’s are endless and all we have is time. Facebook was full of people asking for or recommending shows we needed to binge. The choice was almost overwhelming but ya know we’ve got this! We all smashed the binge watching, the movie watching, or maybe like us, you watched a few theatre productions as well.
TV bought us happiness, escapism and simply a way to fill our time. A welcome distraction. Well as long as you avoided the daily updates!
Hobbies
Both established or newly found hobbies, we all embraced them during lock down. They kept us sane, gave us a focus and made us happy.
Focusing on future happiness
Now it’s time to think about what we could be looking forward to. The things that will bring us happiness as we roadmap our way out of this chaos.
For me these are the things I am excited for, the joy and happiness that is fast approaching.
- Meeting up with friends
- Getting together with the whole family
- Taking a holiday
- Going to the Theatre
- Having a meal out, not outside but in a proper restaurant!
- Celebrating birthdays with real life people
- Going out for the day, on a whim, without having to think about restrictions and booking months in advance
- Going to the gym!! (Yes you can quote me on that one!)
- Walking because I want to and not because it is all we can do
- Getting my hair cut
- Window shopping
- Getting my eyebrows sorted
- Watch the children play with their friends
- Travel out of county!
- Get married! I think this is what I am most excited about obviously!
Finding happiness in a year of chaos
So use this years day of Happiness to focus on the positives. Allow yourself to grieve for this time if you need to but reflecting is so important.
This last year has been crazy but don’t move forward holding on to the negatives. We have all learned so much in this time. Learned more about ourselves, the world around us and what is really important to us.
Enjoy your day of happiness and spread the joy all around!
What bought you happiness over the last year? Do you think it is important to look for the happy moments?
Out of all of this there have definitely been some good things hasn’t there?! We’ve been able to spend time on the house we had been struggling to do previously. New cabinets and storage have now been sorted, decorating done. We’ve also spent more time in nature. I’ll have to come up with something good to celebrate on Saturday! Loved this post 🙂
You’re so right, I think a lot of us have made time for things we would not have done before x x
I love this post so much! The last year has been hard and I’m glad you’ve put a positive spin on it with the things that brought you happiness. My family, friends and where I live has made me so happy this year – and just taking the time to take a step back from the busy day to day life x
Slowing down has really been very important. I hope we all carry that forward x x
I really enjoyed reading this post so much. I think the last year has shown us just what is important in our lives. I can’t wait until I can go for a walk somewhere further than my local area.
I agree, I think this year has really shown us what is important x
Quite a few things have bought me happiness over the past year like getting the keys to our house, doing renovations on our house and starting a new job at the end of April last year. I think we have to look at the good things that have happened to get past the bad x
Sometimes the good seemed far away but in reality if we make time to look, there is a lot to be happy and thankful for x
I love how you have found happiness in the last year. I have to say there has been highs and lows for me and everything I hit low, I remind myself how grateful I am and and write a happy list and that works
The lows are tough but the mindset can really really help x
I love how you have found happiness in the last year. I have to say there has been highs and lows for me and everything I hit low, I remind myself how grateful I am and and write a happy list and that works
Writing it all down is so beneficial x
This was such a lovely and positive post. What brought me happiness over the past year was getting to spend much more time with my family than normal, the introduction of Disney+ and just finding some new favourite routines such as online quizzes with my partner and some online murder mysteries that we have been doing,
We’ve done some of the online murder mysteries and they have been so much fun x
Lovely post, Claire. As always. I’m VERY MUCH focusing on those little things right now and what I have to look forward to when it’s safe to do so.
Exactly that, focusing on the good to come is really important x
This is a great post. I’m looking forward to meeting up with friends and family. Not long now. I can’t wait!!!!!!!! Oh, and I need to get my eyebrows sorted too lol.
Oh my eyebrows are in need of some serious attention!
My happiness was definitely found in having more time with my sons. Sadly my husband had to keep working and commuting throughout Lockdown. It was lovely to do more craft and baking with my boys.
I agree, spending more time with the children has been wonderful. We will never get that time again x
Just what I needed to read today! It is possible to find happiness amid the gloom and so much of it is about mindset and finding happiness in the small things.
I agree, mindset really does change everything x
2020 definitely rocked us in more ways but one you are right there are so many things that also made us happy and we found happiness in the most unexpected ways.
It’s those small moments that have been so magical x
This past year has definitely been full of chaos, I’ve found that I’ve been finding happiness in the smaller, simpler things especially my hobbies.
Hobbies have definitely kept me going as well x x
I have found my love for sewing again over the last 12 months. You are right we shouldn’t let it pass unnoticed, putting together a photo album of the last 12 months has reminded me of all the amazing times we had at home x
We did the same and its a lovely way to hold on to this crazy time x
Lovely post, and I love the focus on the positive. While 2020 was a huge year of loss for me, I agree it’s good not to write off the whole year. One thing I do is try to remember the happy moments with the people I lost, which always brings me a bit of joy. Focusing on future happiness is the goal now!
I am so sorry to hear of your loss. But holding on to the special moments is so important x
Thanks for sharing, I have been watching a lot of movies and TV on streaming in the last year which I would have not done, but I’m grateful for the last year as well 🙂
I think there is a lot of reason to be grateful for and it is really important to hold on to it x
[…] Next up, we have a returning blogger from last month – Claire from Our Favourite Jar! Claire is one of the most supportive bloggers I have ever had the pleasure of getting to know through Twitter. Using her life as a basis for her posts, Claire is a 30 something blogger, Mum, postponed Covid-Bride and school administrator. She loves having the chance to share life, love and grief in her own corner of the internet. Her blog originated from her family gifting her a jar of activities for the family to do, and soon became a place where Claire could talk honestly about the difficulties she faced when she lost her Mum. Some of my favourite blog posts of Claire’s include her Live to Travel, Love to Journal post, reasons why she loves a Gousto box, and – one we can all relate to – finding happiness in a year of chaos! […]
I think I teared up reading this, such a perfect way of putting down what I think most of us are thinking. I can’t wait to be able to hug my parents again, I think this is the first time I have not done so for so long – and I am still unsure when that will happen to be completely honest. Yet, I am grateful my family is fine, my sisters are here with me, we have a place to stay safe in and friends we can count on daily if needed. What more could one want at this time? x
I can relate to most of your future happiness list like getting my eyebrows sorted and going to the gym! It’s been more than a year since I’ve done them and I so look forward to the day I can do both again safely.
What a lovely and heart warming post. This past year has been something, hasn’t it.
I am feeling more positive now than before and I really hope the things we’ve missed out on can really happen this time around
Rosie