Cheers! It’s Happy ‘Me’ Hour.

In a recent conversation with my girlfriends, I discovered that we’re all feeling similarly about life now that we’re in our thirties: we have become so engrossed in and used to our daily routines of life, work and family that time is flying by and we sometimes forget to stop and think about our own happiness and desires. I don’t mean to say we need to quit our jobs and life responsibilities and pull an “Eat, Pray, Love” escape. I simply mean to take a few moments to focus and ask yourself this simple question every day: “Is what I’m doing right now bringing me or contributing to my true happiness?” 

I call it “Happy Me Hour”. It’s basically any time of day you choose to be selfish for your happiness; you take that time to focus on yourself and do something that contributes towards your happiness. And by that I mean do something that requires you to make a specific action vs doing something that someone else can also do. Let’s look at my example. My true happiness is made up of a few different things and you’ll notice they don’t have anything to do with anyone else. These are all activities that require my action, time, attention and focus to happen, otherwise they don’t:

• Feeling fit and taking care of myself
• Talking to my friends
• Being creative and sharing content
• Nursing my two cups of coffee a day for ages

It doesn’t seem like anything significant. But it becomes something meaningful when I make it part of my daily “Happy Me Hour”. I know it’s not realistic to contribute towards every item on my list every day; but it helps to keep that list handy to remind myself if some part of my happiness is not being focused on enough.

Here is how it works for me: I schedule about 2 “happy me hours” every day — one in the late morning when my toddler is taking a nap and another one after he’s gone to sleep at night. Every day I like to keep it at the same time and for the same length of time (45 mins to 1 hour per “happy me hour”) so I remember and focus on what I feel like doing for that particular “happy me hour”. I have also made a small mental list of activities that I like to do: go to the gym, do exercises at home, do creative consulting work, write a blog post, post a beauty video, indulge in some skincare and self-pampering, get some coffee, or chat with my friends. By having a list of activities, I find it much easier to transition into my “happy me hour” because I’m not always thinking “what should I do now?”

I think it’s very easy to fall into the trap of saying “I’m too busy” to focus on yourself and your happiness. There will always be external factors such as family, work, kids etc that will seem more important and require your attention. And sometimes it is true, you will find yourself dragged away from what you actually feel like doing. But I decided if I truly and seriously want to be happy from the inside, no one else but me can take the necessary steps towards making it a reality. It sounds like a bunch of fluffy, self-help book talk but I have been practicing “happy me hour” for almost 8 weeks now and here is what I have learned so far:

• I am calmer (and less cranky) because I know when I will get my me-time every day
• I am more organised and focused
• I use that time to also think clearly about anything that’s going on in my mind
• I feel productive (even if it is not work or life related)
• I am fitter
• I am happier!

So, cheers to “Happy Me Hour”! Find your happiness and let’s get drunk on it together.

What will you do for your “Happy Me Hour”?