Why I Love Gretchen Rubin

I understand this woman.  We are on the same wave length.  She speaks to my most fundamental sense of myself.   We are two women who enjoy the sublime pleasure of mindful living, examining our unconscious habits while bringing a sense of awareness and appreciation to life.  We thrive on the belief that happiness can spring from the talent of elevating the minutiae of daily living into art.  We accept that we are the authors of our own happiness.

A quirky, idiosyncratic Yale educated attorney, former editor of the Yale Law Journal, former clerk to Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, she lassoed her destiny as a writer, leaving a legal career behind in a swirling cloud of dust.  Convinced of the rightness of her career change, she plunged into her love of reading, researching and writing.  Pondering the idea that although she was already happy, how could she do more to become even happier without making radical changes to either her or her family's daily life.  "Being Gretchen" she did what she does best and loves most, she read, read, read and wrote, wrote, wrote.  Her driving passion?  The discovery of what science, philosophy and literature had to say about happiness and how she could interpret her findings into easily applicable precepts and actions to improve the happiness quotient of each day.

And so the Gretchen Rubin happiness cottage industry was born.  As she researched and wrote, she knew she was creating a valuable framework on which to hang her happiness quest.  Yet, she also fretted about projecting an authentic voice on matters of happiness.   How could a woman from her background, an upper middle class family, a Yale educated lawyer, married to Jamie Rubin, son of Robert Rubin, Clinton's former Secretary of the Treasury, a resident of NYC's upper east side, a mother supported by domestic help, wanting for nothing that money can buy, think out loud about this subject without sounding pompous or disingenuous? 

Although some readers do take aim at her privilege, for the most part, she has found that her sincere, earnest, introspective, self-deprecating, informative, thoughtful voice hits that sweet spot where contemplative readers relish pondering this question for themselves.  Many of her loyal readers explore the subject of happiness on their own blogs and in their own professional lives.  Most of her loyal readers eagerly seize upon even the most subtle suggestion, idea, philosophy or perspective tweaking that can, in fact, improve their sense of well-being and perception of their own happiness.  What's not to like about that?  I love her!

Although her blog contains the evolution of her thinking since 2006, her ensuing books, the Happiness Project and Happier at Home, consolidate her years of exploration into two volumes designed to inspire each of us to boost our happiness and amplify our sense of well-being.  Armed, most often, with nothing more than your resolve to try any one of the 100's of suggestions she posits, you too can be well on your way to realizing noticeable and satisfying changes in your daily life.

Thinking and talking about happiness makes me so happy that I'll be revisiting this territory often!

Gretchenisms that make me happy:

“To eke out the most happiness from an experience, we must anticipate it, savor it as it unfolds, express happiness, and recall a happy memory.”
― Gretchen Rubin, The Happiness Project: Or Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun

“In fact, in what’s known as “rosy prospection,” anticipation of happiness is sometimes greater than the happiness actually experienced.”
― Gretchen Rubin  

“As I turned the key and pushed open the front door, as I crossed the threshold, I thought how breathtaking, how fleeting, how precious was my ordinary day Now is now. Here is my treasure.”
― Gretchen Rubin, Happier at Home: Kiss More, Jump More, Abandon a Project, Read Samuel Johnson, and My Other Experiments in the Practice of Everyday Life  

“Happiness," wrote Yeats, "is neither virtue nor pleasure nor this thing nor that, but simply growth. We are happy when we are growing." Contemporary researchers make the same argument: that it isn't goal attainment but the process of striving after goals-that is, growth-that brings happiness.”
― Gretchen Rubin, The Happiness Project: Or Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun 

“Studies show that in a phenomenon called "emotional contagion," we unconsciously catch emotions from other people--whether good moods or bad ones. Taking the time to be silly means that we're infecting one another with good cheer, and people who enjoy silliness are one third more likely to be happy.”
― Gretchen Rubin, The Happiness Project: Or Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun   


[photo credit: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/acumenfund/4584951304/">Acumen Fund</a> via <a href="http://photopin.com">photopin</a> <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/">cc</a>]