Happiness Month! Day 24: Play

Today is Day 24 of Happiness Month and it will be continuing all month long. This all started at the Secret Society of Happy People and if you want to pop over there and become an Amused Member, you can get a Free 31 Types of Happiness poster. As you can tell by my daily #HappinessHappens tweets and Facebook posts, I’ve been a member for a long, long time!

Today, to add happiness to your life: Play!! Remember squit guns and merry-go-rounds and swinging so high you thought you’d flip over? Why don’t we do that anymore?

The word “play” is both a noun and a verb. As a noun, it means:

Activity engaged in for enjoyment and recreation.

As a verb it is an action we have to DO…and it means:

Engage in activity for enjoyment and recreation rather than a serious or practical purpose.

Now playing can mean different things to different people. I’m sure some married couples can not even imagine playing with their spouse–after all, they are “grown ups” and “grown ups” don’t behave like that. But in order to give your marriage some joy and give your own happiness a shot in the arm, it is vitally important to play with your spouse! Dear Hubby and I happen to play several games together–our rule is that we don’t play them “by ourselves” so the game doesn’t become a higher priority that each other. But we also go have picnics, listen to music, watch movies, read books to each other, go to classic car shows, watch football…we do ALL KINDS of fun, playful things together. My Dear Hubby does not roll down hills or tickle–that does not mean “fun” or playing to him. So the trick is to find out what your spouse finds enjoyable and either learn a bit about it yourself and share their interest…maybe ask them to explain it to you… or to share with them something that YOU find fun and show them why they might enjoy it as well!

Over the next days, we’ll be going over all 31 ways to Add Happiness Every Day. You know too often I hear young people say “He doesn’t make me happy” or “I wish she would make me happy” but you know what? Happiness is not something that someone else “makes” you feel. You make choices in your life that can affect your happiness….and ultimately you CHOOSE whether to be happy every day or not. You can also choose to do things that would add happiness to your life every single today.