Happy Acts are posted weekly on Sunday mornings.

The idea to blog each week about something that makes me happy and issue a weekly Happy Act challenge to my readers started perculating in my mind a few years ago. But it wasn’t until I attended a conference and heard the fabulous Ron Tite of The Tite Group, a Second City trained comedian and inspirational speaker that I got off my duff and started this blog (thanks Ron!)

The title of Ron’s talk was “Be an artist”. I’ve always loved writing, but one of the biggest things stopping me was the question, what could I possibly write about that hasn’t been said before? I think all artists must struggle with this question. But the very definition of an artist is a person who creates, and who isn’t afraid to put themselves out there.

At about the same time, I went to hear Frank Warren from postsecret.com fame speak in upper New York state. If you don’t know his blog and his story, make it a part of your regular Sunday morning routine (along with my blog—we both post on Sunday mornings). Frank got this crazy idea to give people postcards and ask them to write their deepest, most innermost secrets on them. The results are revealing, inspiring, and fascinating.

When he first got the idea to ask strangers to share their secrets, people told him he was crazy, but he did it anyway and now postsecret is one of the largest non-commercial blogs in the world.

There were other triggers for wanting to start this blog. One was watching so many people I care about struggle with being happy. It made me realize some of us are blessed with approaching life naturally seeing things with a “glass half full” while others tended to see things with a “glass half empty”. I’ve been fascinated with understanding why that is and how people adapt and cope with life’s challenges based on their outlook and attitude ever since.

In 2013, my husband and I also took the trip of a lifetime to Tanzania.  In a nation that had so little, we were struck by how warm, funny, and happy the people we met were. But I think the biggest impetus has been being a parent and wanting to help my own children find their way in life and be happy.

In my first post, I wrote that happiness is not a destination, it’s a state of being, and to be happy, you need to do little acts of happiness. To those of you who follow this blog and share my posts, I hope together we’ve inspired a few more happy moments in the people’s lives we care about. Thanks for helping to make the world a happier place, one Happy Act at a time.

A bit about the author

Mother of two kids, wife, dog lover, lake dweller, communications director, volunteer, wannabe children’s author, outdoor enthusiast, nature lover, interested in sustainability, the environment, helping others and being happy.

Twitter: @swintonator

LinkedIn: ca.linkedin.com/pub/laurie-swinton/0/6b4/438/

Email: laurie.swinton@gmail.com

Here is a picture of me in my happy place on the lake.