When someone asks how you are, is your automatic response to say "busy" even if you aren't more busy than normal? Today, we talk about wearing the busy badge and if it is affecting your happiness.  

Transcript:

Welcome to Everyday Happiness where we create lasting happiness, in about 2 minutes a day,  through my signature method of Intentional Margins® (creating harmony between your to-dos and your priorities), happiness science, and musings about life. 

I'm your host Katie Jefcoat and I was wondering, does busyness make us happier?  I’ve been wondering if being busy is part of our ego trying to tell us that we are important, people want to hear from us or they need us.  Of course, doing for others and kindness will increase happiness, there is a ton of science to back this up, but I’m wondering if we’ve created a culture of being busy for the sake of being busy.  You know what I mean? 

You bump into a friend and they ask how you are? You say “busy”  and you probably feel busy .. but why?  Why do we feel so busy and is it truly bringing us happiness? 

In the same sense, maybe you don’t feel busy, but you say it anyway, it’s the reaction, you have some margin, but you also have a lot going on, but you still say “busy”.  I do this all the time.  I’m actually not that busy.  But my initial reaction is to say “busy”. 

Is my busyness more important than your busyness… why are we doing this? I wonder if it’s cultural, does this idea that women are running around busy need to change?  

I started trying to stop myself, when I heard the word “busy” come out of my mouth, I started to rephrase with abundant or fulfilled or just simply answering the question, I’m good.  Or whatever I’m actually feeling. 

I invite you to try it on for size.  Reject the urge to say busy, or just be aware how much we’re saying it and do a little re-frame in your mind.  I think you’ll be like me, and find that not using the busy badge might make you just a tiny bit happier. 

And if you enjoyed this episode of Everyday Happiness,make sure that you hit the subscribe button wherever you are tuning into today, so that you never miss an episode. And, if you would be so kind and leave a 5-star review, all of us over here producing this micro-podcast would be so incredibly grateful. 

Until next time. Remember, kindness is contagious. 

Get Everyday Happiness delivered to your inbox by subscribing at: https://www.katiejefcoat.com/happiness

And, let’s connect on social at @everydayhappinesswithkatie  and join the community on the hashtags #IntentionalMargins and #everydayhappinesswithkatie on Instagram

Links:  https://onamission.bio/everydayhappiness/