My Happiness challenge day 32

Happy people... 32. Cultivate a sense of purpose, whether through religion or spirituality, a hobby family, or a career that satisfies them. I have been working on being more satisfied with my life to stave off my depression. I have been working hard on 4 areas of my life specifically. First I have been working on my relationship with God by working through a devotional on the Bible app about being PRAYERFUL. Each of the letters stands for an area of prayer to focus on. I haven't been committed enough to this area of my life for many years and I feel it has left me open to negative factors in my life. Having a good relationship with my God is one thing I know will help me to control my depression. My hobby right now is running. I devote a lot of time and energy into becoming a better runner. The work is really paying off! In the past 4 years I've gone from running a 13 minute mile average to an 11 minute per mile average. Today I ran a 10k race in 1:11:11! It is very rewarding to find out what your body is capable of. I have 2 more half marathons scheduled for 2017 and then will begin training for the Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon in January. The 3rd area I have been working on is healing my family relationships. It's not easy because they all have their own lives that don't revolve around me, but I'm trying to let them know that I want to be there for them when they need me. I don't want to have regrets about letting us grow apart over the years (even though I know they share some blame too). I need to know that I have done everything within my power to keep us close. Finally, career satisfaction is something I always work on over the summer through professional development. Our schools will be going to 1:1 iPads in the classroom this year so I've been working through modules online to get ready to start the year off on the right foot. In teaching, you have to begin as you mean to go on or there will be a lot of chaos which is not conducive to learning. I didn't start teaching right out of college like many teachers do. I worked for a car rental company for 6 years before going back to school to get my certification. I always felt like I was meant to do something important and started to feel like anyone could do what I did at the company. That was the most depressing time in my life because I knew I wasn't making a difference in the world. Even though it was scary to go back to college and expensive and challenging, that was when I started to believe in myself. I could do anything I set my mind to! It may seem that I have a lot on my plate right now and there is when I put it all down in a blog. But I'm not trying to accomplish all of it at once! But being able to say that I am making progress toward all of these things is really satisfying! I don't have time to sit and be depressed if I am working toward a goal! I am happy!