Science of Happiness Badge

1. Make yourself happier (did for two weeks or more):

Get into a state of "flow."
I have been getting into flow through using the app "Paint Joy" which allows you to create masterpieces on your phone. It sparks my creative interest and allows me to paint things that I've never painted before. Some of the projects I worked on using the Paint Joy app were creating a bonnet, the moon, and a winter scene.

Another thing that gets me into a state of flow is playing my double French horn. When I play, the time goes by quickly because it is so much fun! I found that I have the most flow when I played the music for summer band camp.

2. Think differently for happiness (did for two weeks or more):

Be happy for others.
We celebrated with Dad for his drum corps anniversary and told him how how awesome that was! We even went to the reunion and celebration.

A younger Girl Scout troop was bridging and we attended and participated in their ceremony, and celebrated with the girls afterward. I congratulated them and talked with them about what they are looking forward to in the next level of Girl Scouting.

We visited our cousins and heard all about some of the activities that they are involved in such as Boy Scouts, music camp, and sports teams. We asked them more about the activities and paid attention to what they were saying. We told them how awesome that sounded and celebrated with a pizza dinner.

3. Get happy through others:

Make something meaningful.
I made a painting to give to a veteran. It said thank you for serving our country, and had the symbols of the armed forces on it. I made it because I am grateful to the men and women of the military for all that they do to protect our country and keep us safe, and for helping others overseas.

4. Do a helpful happiness experiment:

Focus on one friend.
I talked to my friend who was sad because she lost her special bracelet. I gave her a hug and told her that she would find it soon, and then we did an activity that got her mind off of it. She said that made her feel better! I used my signature strengths of hope, humor, kindness, and love. It was amazing because it made me feel happy to help her that way.

5. Create a happiness action plan:

Create a bliss box.
We made a bliss box decorated from an old coffee can and put happy things inside such as happy moments from my journal, happy activities, reasons to be thankful, something a friend said, and some of my strengths.