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Use gratitude as a gateway to happiness, Hinsdale speaker says
Updated: March 15, 2013 11:57AM
HINSDALE — Being married to a person who is positive and optimistic can be trying, especially in this grey and still dark time of year.
Some of us think of happiness as less about being a choice and more like the result of a serendipitous and statistically remarkable confluence of several factors including state of finances, status of lodging and vehicles, satisfaction and recognition in career, the relative security and health of offspring and other family and so on and on and on.
Morr spoke to several village moms last week at a Hinsdale Library presentation on Moms Make Happy Happen. Morr’s background is varied and includes motherhood, grandmotherhood, being spouse, working in corporate America and speaking and writing on the subject of that elusive happiness. In short, she has juggled a lot just like many of us.
Busy moms and women should be sure to indulge themselves every now then.
“We’re so busy bending over backwards making everyone else happy, we don’t even think about making ourselves happy,” she said.
She did a quick survey, asking what would a small but cherished indulgence be for the audience. A universal answer was simple and surprisingly cheap: quiet time for uninterrupted reading. It’s the “uninterrupted” part that really sounds appealing.
Sleep deprivation, anxiety, stress and depression undermine happiness Morr said, and she mentioned that psychologist Martin Seligman, Ph.D. has shown that happy people make gratitude a habit. The idea is that gratitude is not so much of a feeling as it is a discipline. Make yourself keep a list of things you are grateful for. Work on it. Seligman found that being grateful works the fastest and provides the most long-term, long-lasting satisfaction. Avoiding negative people, doing something for someone else and volunteering are other ways of getting to a happy place.
For more information about Morr or her book Choose Happy: 25 Happiness Habits to Transform Your Life, visit www.DianneSpeaking.com or www.MorrCreative.com.
Daddy-daughter date Night
I trudged by the Clarendon Hills Lions Park Pool in the sludgy snow last week because I like to monitor the progress of construction projects during my walks. The new diving well seems to be coming along. In other words, it is currently a symmetrical cemented rectangular hole in the ground. It is amazing to think that in just about four months it is going to be one of the busiest, noisiest, most colorful and gleeful places in Clarendon Hills.
Speaking of gleeful, the Clarendon Hills Park District’s very popular Daddy-Daughter Date Night is scheduled for Friday, March 15 this year. Dads and their daughters can enjoy a special evening, which professional storyteller Paddy Lynn will lead. The event runs from 6 to 7:45 p.m. and concludes with ice cream. The cost is $30 per dad/daughter couple and $5 for each additional daughter.
Here’s something really cute, too. A week before the date night, the park district, in conjunction with the village of Westmont, is offering a Winter Spa Retreat for moms and daughters from 6-7:30 p.m. on Friday, March 8. Call (630) 323-2626.
