A couple of things that have been really useful for me:

Write down, at the end of the day, 3 (or more?) good things about your day. This is an idea a lot of poeple talk about , but it really helps. just writing down the smallest things can make you feel better about what seemed at first glance a waste of a day.

Get out of the house, I do this by taking my Mountain bike and getting lost in the middle of nowhere. Getting lost gives me a good feeling, like I did something ( the trying to find my way back bit).Or  I take my car, last weekend I decided do drive to the peak district, my god I felt like I was on holiday. I always forget how beautiful it is up there and how much the nature can change in a couple of minutes driving, thick woods and all of a sudden miles of green fields.

Do something of which other people can say ‘you did a good job’, it just makes it more worthwhile doing something if you get the impression that people appreciate it. Photografy does that for me, I enjoy it and I can make other people happy by taking some nice pictures. TIP: if you are into analogue photography get a HOLGA!

Basic things, but not the easiest to apply on yourself.

The more I do the more I learn that doing little things mosltey make the big things happen.

It is the same way with a lot of things in my life. I know I have a good life and I am lucky, I am free to do what I want. But mostly I don’t realize it, I only seem to be able to focus on the bad things that are happening, and all the good things that happen all the time have become normal and insignificant.

I just keep thinking I should be happy, I have everything I am supposed to have to be happy. But why am I not happy then??

I got this text this week and it does talk about this issue.

The freedom paradox

In his 2008 book, The Freedom Paradox, Clive Hamilton argues that
within free-market capitalism, corporate interests actively discourage
us from acting in accord with the values, preferences and desires we
would endorse after careful consideration. Very few of us, he writes,
would, upon deep reflection, say that it is our innermost desire in
life to work incredibly hard at a job we dislike in order to possess
the latest consumer products. Yet this is precisely the life our
society encourages. From early childhood onward, advertisers expertly
instill within us a set of values, preferences and desires that are
not our own, but those that corporations wish us to have. As a result,
our true ideals become increasingly neglected and stigmatized. This
denial of our moral selves, Hamilton believes, can largely explaining
the discontent increasingly prevalent in affluent societies.

Empirical support for these ideas can be found in the world of Martin
Seligman, the world renowned psychologist and expert in the study of
happiness. After years of research, Seligman has proposed that a major
component of happiness is having meaning in our lives, which is
achieved by being devoted to something larger than ourselves. This
compliments Hamilton’s arguments well. The things we devote ourselves
to and derive meaning from will doubtlessly be linked with our inner
values. And if devoting ourselves to things we deeply value is an
important part of happiness, it seems only obvious that failing to do
so–and living in societies that actively discourage us from doing so —
would lead to unhappiness.

-Paul Connor, excerpted from Adbusters #91, Volume 18, #5

If I go back to the rain that made me so happy, that teaches me that happiness is not in all the big things but can be found in small things that seem insignificant. Just look around and see what there is.

Living a life that you think should make you happy because it is ‘sold’ to you as, THE way to live if you want to be happy,  doesn’t work, simply because it is not what you want. I know when I am not doing what I really want to by my ‘gut feeling’. It just does not feel right and there is something inside me telling me that it is wrong and yet most of the time i choose to ignore it, even though most of the time that feeling is right. although this is not a feeling I want to use as a rule in everything I do, it is a good guidance when making decisions.

This house has a lot to do with me realising this stuff.

I went for a bike ride today and saw some incredible old industrial buildings nearby. They are amazing, to think that a couple of years ago they were still busy making things and now they are just abandoned and neglected. At the same time they are still alive by the remains of old metal or fabric laying arround. I am planning on going for an exploring trip with my camera .

The first two pictures I took with my camera, trying to figure out the settings.

I was amazed, and still am, that changing one small setting could have such a big effect on how the picture looked.

a day at cap gris nez, after a great time with great people