Finally, February!

Congratulations - you survived the first 6 months of January!

What a month January has been; filled with highs and lows, every emotion possible, and trying to get in a routine to set ourselves up for a happy 2026… hopefully.

I've seen so many memes about January - how draining it's been, how hard and troubling it's been... just things happening that we did not plan to happen, either this early on in the year, or at all for that matter.

I've definitely had my fair share of troubling moments last month, and with the weather being as gloomy and cold as it's been, it's been hard to stay positive. 

And so when things start to go downhill... What do we do? How do we stay positive and think happily? When we've already started to see events put a wrench in our plans, how do we keep going? 

And answering these questions has become fuel for this blog, because things don't always go to plan. Things come up and throw us off track, and our emotions can be heavily affected by them. 

And right now, the only answer I can think of is to have faith. Have faith that things will work out, because they always do. Give yourself some grace during the hard times, and be proud of what you've had to do to make it to the good times. 

Within the past few months, I've been trying to grow a relationship with God - something very few people know. I've never really been a church-going person or a "religious" type person, but ever since losing my dad almost 2 years ago now, I've been a lot more curious. 

Whenever times were hard and rough, he said things like "God will make it happen, He's going to make things alright". And for years, I could never understand why. Especially when things didn’t seem to be going well, or getting any better. Even towards the end when his health rapidly declined, he never lost faith. He kept going to church when he could, he kept praying, and kept having faith. 

I think it was so hard for me to understand and grasp my mind around having faith because I'm not sure if I ever really tried to. Although I do believe there is something behind all of "this", I never really made it a point to define it. But, without trying to define it, it's made things harder for me to understand, harder for me to sometimes have hope, and harder for me to find my path. 

And so lately, I've been trying to lean a little more into faith, religion, and God. I went to Barnes & Noble and picked out a Bible. I brought it to the counter and the girl checking me out at the counter commented on how beautiful it was, and it gave me a really good feeling. I tried to read it before bed and in the morning, as a way to center myself before I sleep and to “set the stage” for a new day. I was heavily influenced on social media and purchased a “Year with Jesus” daily devotional, and I’ve been doing that every day since the New Year. 

After I read my Bible or do my daily devotion, I pray. I pray for myself, my family and friends, and people I don't even know. And, in doing this, I feel like it has made me appreciate all the moments in my day-to-day life. A lot of these moments have been opportunities where I could practice patience and grace, being kind, and being present - which are also big parts of my healing and self work journey as well. 

On days I don’t do these things, I find myself more annoyed, maybe a bit more irritable, and in a rush. And as I am on this “happiness journey”, I’ve noticed these things greatly impact my happiness level on a given day. 

Now, I know every day won’t be sunshine and rainbows, and that things will come up and I may get annoyed, irritable or be in a rush. But my goal is to be as self aware as possible, and to be able to keep myself grounded and centered when things do come up. 

As Rubin says in her book The Happiness Project, “The days are long, but the years are short.” 

So be happy - life is too short not to be.