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Color Your Life Happy Day celebrates my mom’s birthday. Here she is genuinely surprised when I picked her up in a limo for a Mother’s Day Brunch one year.

Did you make New Year’s resolutions?

If you stuck to them, congratulations. If you’re like most of us, however, those resolutions evaporated from your consciousness in a few weeks (or was that days?)

Regardless of how you fared in this annual practice, here’s an opportunity to start anew, but with just one resolution: make happiness a habit.

What is Color Your Life Happy Day?

August 9th “Color Your Life Happy Day”, is a day to participate in something you enjoy, some activity that will make you happy and others too. Then make a decision to make it a habit to continue finding joy, pleasure, and a way to help others for the rest of the year (make that the rest of your life.)

Happiness is not a destination, but the things we do along the way as we live our lives. At the end of their lives, many wish they had slowed down, worked less, and spent more time enjoying family, friends and fun activities. Don’t let this be you.

Regrets are a waste. Do the things that bring you and others joy and happiness every day.

The Origin of Color Your Life Happy Day

This special celebration was inspired by the memory of my mother, Mildred S. Morris, who was born on August 9, 1910.  She passed at age 92 in 2002. She was a hairstylist by trade but spent her life making people happy with her music. She played piano and organ from childhood through her mid-80’s for many churches, organizations, and events. Everyone who ever heard her play was touched by her lively and fervent style.

How to Participate

Please join me in starting to make happiness a habit on Color Your Life Happy Day, August 9th through August 12th.

• • You may choose to
    • take time off to read a book you’ve longed to finish
    • join the courageous who decide to get control of the clutter that has been making them very unhappy
    • rent a Harley or Segway to go for a fun ride
    • become a tourist in your own town and visit a museum or other local treasure you’ve never seen
    • visit a local convalescent home to spend some time with a resident who never gets visitors.

• The easiest way to make happiness a habit is to keep it simple. Open the door for someone. Smile. Take a walk in your neighborhood and be grateful you live in a country where you are free to do this.
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  Get busy thinking of how you will celebrate.

Color Your Life Happy Day is not just for today, but every day.

Take a picture showing your happiness habit and post it on Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest or Facebook using the  hashtag #coloryourlifehappy.

Remember, it doesn’t have to be grand or spectacular by anyone else’s standards. It just has to be something that makes you and/or others happy.

I’m looking forward to the wonderful array of photos. Don’t forget the hashtag #coloryourlifehappy

Want help coming up with happiness habits?

Here are a few from my book, Color Your Life Happy:
Create Your Unique Path and Claim the Joy You Deserve

• • • dance or sing to music you enjoy
    • volunteer for a cause you believe in
    • connect with a pet
    • savor the moment you’re in
    • say “yes” to yourself

For more detailed guidance on handling change and adversity, 
harmonizing family and work, and creating the life you want and deserve, go to Amazon and get the paperback,
ebook or audiobook at http://amzn.to/2aAZH8D

Reduce stress and relax by coloring creative activities 

Coloring is now socially acceptable for adults. You no longer have to sneak into the kids’ section or “borrow” your kids’ coloring books. Best of all, slowing your mind and engaging in the repetitive motion of coloring helps you unplug from daily stress, increase mindfulness, foster relaxation,  stimulate creativity, and increase self-esteem.

There are three types of activities in this book: 30 patterns, drawings, and mandalas of varying complexity, seven coloring pages with motivational phrases, and finally, seven open-ended activities with space for you to write, doodle, or draw in response to a prompt.

Complete the activities in any order you wish. There are no page numbers or right or wrong. Don’t feel pressured to finish an activity. Stop whenever you want, and move on to another one or not. Most of all, let this book transport you to childlike pleasure and guilt-free fun. Get your copy and one for a loved one on Amazon here.

Express gratitude daily

“Thank you.”

It is one of the first things many children are taught to say. Sometimes we say it in response to receiving a gift. Other times we express gratitude when someone is kind or helps us with a task.

Expressing gratitude is not just a childhood courtesy but when done regularly can improve your satisfaction with life. Showing gratitude is easy and doesn’t cost anything and has tremendous benefits.

Researchers have discovered that expressing gratitude not just occasionally, but daily, improves your health, promotes better sleep, and strengthens relationships, among many other benefits. This journal gives you space to reflect on what you have to be grateful for, and make a daily list. Enjoy
the benefits.

There is space in this journal for you to enter your thoughts and a list of things you’re grateful for every day of the year. Peek inside the Look Inside feature to discover what awaits you at the bottom of the first day of each month.

 Get your copy or a gift for a loved one on Amazon here.

How to Promote the Happiness Habit

Happiness is a habit. Tell us in the comments how you will cultivate yours, starting today.