Happy Jar 2017

I am a long time journaler, and I practice positive journaling. One of the ways I write positive journaling is the Happy Jar. For those of you who don't know what Happy Jar means, it's a way to keep track of all your happy moments throughout the year. Each Sunday, at the end of the week, you reflect about what has happened during that week, you make a note of the happiest moment of your week, and you put that little note in a jar, hence the name of Happy Jar. And so at the end of the year you have 52 notes in your Happy Jar with 52 happiest moments and events that you have had during the entire year. On New Year's Eve you open the Happy Jar, you read all those 52 happy notes, and you can see for yourself what an amazing, fabulous and happy year you have had.

I started my first Happy Jar last year, in January 2017, and I found the inspiration for it on Instagram. Each Sunday of 2017 I took a minute to reflect about my week, what has happened during that week, and what made me happy during those 7 days -- this way a new happy note would go into my Happy Jar.

The jar is an actual glass jar that I repurposed from my grocery shopping, and I gave it some flare by decorating it a little bit

And then a year later, that is in January 2018, I took all my notes out, I put them in order from 1 to 52, and I read all of them. And I could see for myself what a happy and awesome year I have had.

Now, the Happy Jar tradition says you're supposed to open your Happy Jar on New Year's Eve and read all your happy notes of the year that goes away. However I didn't quite follow the tradition of the Happy Jar as it says, because I hosted the New Year's Eve party at my place this past holiday season, I had guests coming over, and on December 31st I was busy cooking and cleaning the house in preparation for the New Year's party. As such, I didn't have any time for anything else besides the party, and so I opened my Happy Jar and read all my happy notes during the first week of January.

To tell you the whole truth, 2017 has not been an easy year for me, because troubles have made their way into paradise. One weekend sometime last August I felt particularly down, and I took out my Happy Jar for a cheer up. I read all the happy notes that I had written that far, must have been about 40 of them at that point in time in August. I put them in their order 1 to 40, and I read all of them. It did help, and it did give me a positive boost. And that low Sunday morning, once I remembered the happy moments that happened to me this year, I realized that I'm better off if I appreciate the good things happening in my life, rather than letting myself overwhelmed by troubles in paradise, no matter how challenging they might be. I did the same thinking this January when I read all 52 of them -- even though 2017 has been a difficult year for me, positive journaling and my Happy Jar have helped me keep my spirits up. I read my 52 happy notes and I realized that a lot of amazing things happened to me this past year, not only challenges; and when I look back at 2017, I want to see and remember the happy moments that I have had, not the troubles in paradise.

Once I read my Happy Jar, I tucked it away in my home library where I keep my other old journals (because it is a journal in itself, even though it's documented in a glass jar and not in a notebook), and I started my new Happy Jar for 2018. Next December (or maybe next January 😊) I will do the same -- I will open my Happy Jar and I will see what an amazing, fabulous and happy 2018 year I have had.

I used another similar glass jar which I repurposed from my grocery shopping, and I decorated it just a little bit.

My both Happy Jars -- 2017 full of happiness and now tucked away; and 2018 with just a few happy notes in it so far, and lots of room for a lot of happiness until the end of the year

Photo credit: Victoria West