Happiness project - Monthly update | May 2025

Reflections and progress update

May was slow on the happiness learning project. I was travelling for most of May and couldn’t devote time to consuming content and making notes. I’m still reading the same books as last month and barely consumed any other content. I had multiple conversations on the project, though. That was fun.

I have come to enjoy an unlikely source of wisdom on happiness - Instagram reels. By now, word has spread enough. Anyone who comes across a reel on happiness makes it a point to send it to me. I’m grateful for it, even at the cost of breaching my scrolling limit every day.

2 concepts learnt (not 3 this month)

First, our ability to convince ourselves of our happiness and unhappiness is wonderful! Confirmation bias is at play here and quite prominently. If I feel that I have a happy life, I go looking for evidence to support it and find it. If I feel that I have an unhappy life, I go looking for evidence to support it and find it too. Recognising this self-reinforcing cycle and working around it can be a strong lever for someone who’d like to reset their affect.

Second, a sustained mindfulness practice makes the default state of our mind calmer, compassionate, joyful and appreciative. If our mindset is primarily responsible for our happiness, then the default state of the mind becomes super important. This default state will rule how we initiate, perceive, frame and respond to life situations more often than not. The challenge is to develop this default state through sustained training for a long enough period of time. How long exactly? 🤷🏼‍♂️

Happiness mantras

I can only change myself to improve my happiness.

Choose to be happy.

One of the best ways to make yourself happy is to make other people happy; one of the best ways to make other people happy is to make yourself happy - Gretchen Rubin

To be happy, you need to consider feeling good, feeling bad and feeling right, in an atmosphere of growth - Gretchen Rubin

Content

1. [Book] The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle - Almost done. Find my notes here.

2. [Book] Stumbling on Happiness by Prof Daniel Gilbert - Halfway through.

Happiness project resources

All other content, notes and resources are maintained on a public Notion board here. :)