Kyla Miller: A Writing Portfolio

My Experiences: The Subjective Data

 

This ended up being much harder to maintain than I thought, which is really kind of sad when you think about it. Whenever I was annoyed filling out my happiness tracker survey or going to workout when I was tired or knew there were other things that I needed to be doing, I had to constantly remind myself why I was doing this. I would just think about what I read on 100happydays: that 70% didn’t complete the activity because they “didn’t have time”. I didn’t want to be that person that used that as my excuse. So I trucked on in this relentless pursuit to become a much happier person.

 

Overall, I think it worked really well. But, more on the hard data in a bit. In terms of my overall experience, I mostly enjoyed forcing myself to workout and sleep 8 hours a night. I found myself prioritizing my time so much more! In order to workout for an hour and sleep 8 hours, that was 9 hours that were already cut out of a 24 hour day. Which is where social media played a large role in making up for lost time.

 

At first, I had no idea how much time I was spending on social media. When I used the software on my computer to track just how much time I was spending on it, I was completely shocked. The first day I logged over 2 hours on social media…OUCH. What a complete waste of my time. And I always felt worse after looking at it, even if I was having a great day. I’ve done numerous research papers on media and how it can affect your mood (HELLO I’m a Communications and Psychology double major—I could recite the research with my eyes closed), but that wasn’t the point. It’s easy to know that something does that to you, but it’s another to actually make a change to stay away from it. Having to record the time I spent was painfully honest, and I loved that. If there were one thing that I would recommend people do to become happier in their daily life, this is certainly it! GET OFF THE INTERNET AND ENJOY YOUR LIFE! And while you’re at it, get off your phone too. They’re essentially the same thing anyways.

 

I found my mood improved the most dramatically when I would exercise. Even if I was having a really difficult day, I would try even harder to force myself to workout. The hardest part is getting to the gym or starting a run. Once I got going, I felt great, and after, I felt 100 times better. I’ve heard it’s this little thing called endorphins…ever heard of them? ;) I also started to feel so much more fit and healthy. I started taking the stairs every chance I could get, and setting goals for myself on my runs. As a cheerleader on the Michigan All-Girl team, I was able to incorporate workouts that would help me improve my tumbling skills, and I found that as the month went on, my tumbling got a lot stronger and took a lot less effort than it used to. I also incorporated strength training which has been a fun endeavor! I can even bench 100 lbs now! Who said girls can’t lift too?!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The more subjective changes, like reading the daily quote and applying it to my day as well as spending more time with friends and family went really well too. I found myself slacking a bit with the daily quotes, but whenever I would miss one, I read it the next day and tried to incorporate both quotes to that day. I also was able to call my family a lot more frequently, especially my sister, which was really great. I’ve always had a close relationship with my parents, but this really solidified that. It’s hard when I’m not close to them, but I even made two trips back home over the course of this month (totally unrelated to the project, but that’s okay), and I’m really glad I did. Being closer with my friends and family has truly made this entire project possible. I told everyone I could about it, and they all were really supportive of me. Also, keeping the journal was really therapudic for me. I was able to reflect on the week or last several days whenever I found the time, and it helped to keep my on track and remind me of my goals thoughout the month.

 

After the month was up, I truly could feel myself feeling happier, healthier, more well rounded, and extremely well rested. I was able to prioritize my life in a way that focused on what mattered most to me—my friends and family as well as my well-being. I don’t think people take enough time for themselves, which is really what this project was all about. After all, you don’t have anything if you don’t feel happy and secure with yourself, and I really do think that I accomplished that goal.

 

So, what about the REAL data? After all, I didn’t track and log all of these things for nothing!! 

 

The Hard Data