Come on, get Happier

About a week before we left for Mexico, I wasn’t doing much. I had been given 8 hours of work that week.
THAT WHOLE WEEK. So I had a lot of time on my hands to do, well, nothing. During one of my morning iPhone binges, I saw a recommendation for an app called Happier on my Facebook News Feed. I usually skip these suggestions
(so often dating apps), but this one stood out for me. I clicked on it and became a convert.

What is Happier? Immediately, I would liken it to your Twitters and Instagrams.
It’s social media, however it is specifically focused on happiness, gratitude, and appreciation of life.
When talking about it, I feel like I may come off a little preachy and annoying, but I think that’s because we are so used to our social media outlooks focusing on the negative. I know this because I DO IT.
If I feel like publicly bitching, I go to Twitter and rant for 140 characters (and sometimes more, in additional tweets). I think of people I follow on Instagram, celebrities or models or nail artists who get hateful comments or get reported just because. For some reason, people see social media, a place meant to share things we love, as a place to dump on people.

Not Happier! Happier is actually meant to be a practice in gratitude.
The more you focus on the things around you, on the positive of even the most negative situation, the happier you might find yourself being. This is something I needed. Many people need, but I know that I especially did, for myself.
I am the queen of worrying about what hasn’t happened yet. I get lost in moments that I feel will never end.
So I decided, why not?

What do I love about this app?
You don’t have to post if you don’t want to, obviously, but when you do, there is a little “confetti celebration” for posting. It might sound super cheesy, but it seriously will make you smile.

As you can see on the screencap, there are a few different pages to look at. On your personal page, it shares your name, a little profile pictures, and what makes you happy. What I really love about it is that there is nothing about how many followers you have. I don’t keep track of this on my Instagram or Twitter, but I know many people do. A lot of people care about how many people like their things (hey, I use tons of hashtags for my nail art posts, hoping people will like it!), but this makes it hard to. You’re notified when someone starts following your little page, but there’s no number count. Happier is not a popularity contest, and that makes me a little happier!

There’s absolutely no pressure to post multiple times a day, or once a day for that matter, but there are push notifications three times a day (you can change this in the settings) that remind you to look on something happy that happened to you that day! It’s a nice reminder to ponder the good things.

The community is really lovely. Everyone just wants to share their little moments or pictures, some share inspirational quotes (and there’s always one on the Featured page, a different one every day from the Happier crew, along with a tip on how to be happier, from complimenting people to exercising for 20 minutes), and when you enjoy their moment you “smile” it. You can comment or even share it if it makes you happier, too!

If you’re ever scratching for something to say, the Today page will list a little happy challenge. Name something about the weather you love. What was the last beautiful thing you saw? Et cetera. If anything else, it will remind you of something great, even if you had a bad day.

I truly feel like this app has helped improve my outlook on life. I got this before Mexico, and while I had some wonderful things to be happy about over there, I also had to leave. Instead of feeling sad about coming back, I was excited to get into projects that were put on the wayside (like my Project Life, which is currently finished for January!), or nail art I got behind on, and, of course, seeing my family. It has helped me look at the bright side of the situation. It’s also a great reminder that we are all looking for a little bit of happiness, and that we all have it, we just have to actually look at it.