I’ve really been slacking on the Weekly Challenges lately, but I made sure to do this one! It’s a dark time of the year, both in relation to sunlight, and to the fact that many people (myself included) suffer from seasonal affective disorder. There are also many, many people who have negative associations with the holiday season because of family troubles.
For the main part of this challenge this week, I wanted to invoke happiness within myself and to try to spread that happiness to others. To do this, I baked some spritz cookies using the recipe from one of my late grandma’s cookbooks. I chose the recipe because even though I don’t have any memories of her making these particular cookies, it had a note written in beside it in her handwriting, so I figured she’d made it at least once. I also used her measuring cups and measuring spoons, as well as her “cooky” press to shape the cookies.
[Side note: The cookie press I have that belonged to my grandma is old enough to have been made back when the word “cookie” was spelled as “cooky” before the spelling shifted to the current spelling through popular usage.]
While I was mixing the cookie dough, I visualized some of the wonderful memories I have of celebrating Christmas with that side of the family, and then channeled my happiness into the dough as I mixed it. After baking the cookies, I made up a couple of plates of them and delivered them to some friends to share my happiness, love, and appreciation with my friends.
As a second component of this challenge, I’ve been trying to focus on finding positive aspects in negative situations. This was put into (hardcore) practice this morning when we were woken up at about 3 o’clock this morning (on Christmas Day, when I was trying to sleep in!) to our fire alarm going off. Fortunately, it was just a false alarm! However, we often forget to test our smoke detectors regularly, so I took it as a sign from the universe that (1) the smoke detectors work, (2) we need to test them regularly, and (3) life is precious, and we need to appreciate and be happy for all that we have.
The past few days of really focusing on how to bring more happiness into my life has really helped me fight off the wintertime blues!