Ahhh, the weekend! Although I'm currently not working, (at least not in a traditional sense!), I still let out a huge sigh of relief when Saturday morning finally rolls around. Perhaps this is due to habit. Or perhaps it is because there are often so many wonderfully helpful people who come into our home wanting to nurture, play with, and love our children. But regardless of the reason, I'm very fond of Saturday mornings!
This morning was typical in many ways. While my husband caught up on some much needed rest after a week of erratic sleep and too early mornings, my best friend, Angela and I enjoyed coffee, scones, and conversation. You might remember from earlier posts that Angela has played an integral role in the creation of this experiment so, not surprisingly, conversation turned to how it has been going. After catching her up on the tremendous amount of support and encouragement I have received, (thank you!) and the surprisingly large number of hits from multiple countries that I have had, (thank you, again!), we got down to how it has been affecting me personally. And, dear reader, I'm honestly surprised by the huge impact that this project has had on my life in such a short period of time.
Don't get me wrong... I fully expected to enjoy the time that I spent experiencing novelty, but I didn't expect anything to be different during the other moments in my life. I figured I'd have my fun for some amount of time each day, but the rest of the day would be much the same as it always has been. Instead, I find that I've become increasingly happier and more enthusiastic about life since committing myself to this experiment. Now, if I had been depressed or even "just OK" before taking this on that wouldn't surprise me. But I started this project at a time when I was filled with gratitude for the blessings in my life and pretty darn happy with how everything had been going. So to feel even happier was a total surprise!
As we are both psychotherapists, we, of course, had to analyze and process why this is. Is it because I had lacked a creative outlet before that the act of writing a blog was filling? Maybe. Was it the anticipation of having a mini-adventure each day that brought excitement into my otherwise mundane life? Maybe. Was it that each experience was a reminder to return to the present moment and be fully mindful of what I am doing, which in my opinion is a necessary component of happiness? Maybe, again. I'm sure that each one of these factors is a piece of the puzzle. However, the one change I've experienced that has stood out for me more than the others is the fact that each day I wake up feeling as though I am on a mission to seek out a novel experience.
As I was explaining this to Angela, she made me aware of research that suggests that human beings have a need to be "seeking." I had never heard of this before, but being the nerd that I am, I have since followed her leads and have done some research. Some of you may have heard of Temple Grandin, the animal science researcher who has autism and was recently featured in an award winning film? In her book, Animals Make Us Human
, she talks about how the act of seeking is important to animals, (including humans), and is integral to our happiness. At a basic level, we are hard wired to actively seek out, or hunt for, our food even though modern day conveniences make this completely unnecessary. So, perhaps the fact that this experiment puts me in a position to be actively seeking something new everyday fulfills this animalistic need, which perhaps was not being fulfilled enough before.
, she talks about how the act of seeking is important to animals, (including humans), and is integral to our happiness. At a basic level, we are hard wired to actively seek out, or hunt for, our food even though modern day conveniences make this completely unnecessary. So, perhaps the fact that this experiment puts me in a position to be actively seeking something new everyday fulfills this animalistic need, which perhaps was not being fulfilled enough before.
And it is true that I had recently entered a phase in my life in which I wasn't sure what I was working toward. For the first time in as long as I could remember, I didn't have a particular longterm goal that I wanted to achieve. I had already sought out and attained the career I had wanted, the family I had wanted... And while I felt like I SHOULD be happy just sitting back and enjoying the fruits of my labor, in all honesty I had been feeling a little bit lost. I wonder now if needing novelty was only part of the issue... Perhaps I needed the "seeking" part of novelty seeking more than the novelty itself!
So, as my conversation with Angela turned to the events of the day, I looked to the internet to find some options for novel experiences close to home. And, to continue with the seeking theme, we decided to hunt for moose... Sort of... In actuality, I discovered that not far from where we live there is the world's ONLY life-sized chocolate moose! And as we are great lovers of both moose and chocolate, we piled the children into the car and off we went!
Yet another mission was accomplished! And, as an unexpected bonus, we also tracked down three chocolate bears... and some very tasty chocolate treats!
