In honor of that anniversary, here's an article I wrote about the app featuring some local users.
Amy Oliver wanted to follow her therapist’s advice.
“She wanted me to start keeping a gratitude journal,” recalls
Oliver, a 44 year old who lives in Clinton. “And I was constantly forgetting.”
Then she remembered an app called Happier that she’d seen on
the iPhone app store. “I thought maybe that would be a good way to do it, to
keep track of things without having to write it in the journal every day,” she
says. “I became hooked really, really quickly.”
Happier launched one year ago, and was named one of 2013’sbest apps by Time Magazine. The brainchild of Nataly Kogan, Happier is based on
scientific studies showing that people who write down a few positive things
about their day are healthier, more energetic, less stressed and anxious, and
get better sleep. The app makes it easy to share those little happy moments.
“If you actually use Happier, if you get into the habit of
finding small positive things, it actually makes you happier,” says Kogan. “We
have thousands, tens of thousands of emails from people that tell us just how
much this has impacted their life, which is amazing.”
“It helped me to celebrate the tiny little moments that I
might otherwise just forget about,” says Oliver. “The fact that other people
can ‘smile’ at your moments, it helps me to realize that it’s not so stupid
that I’m enjoying a coffee at Starbucks.”
Kogan sees these little moments as validation of a larger
truth. “To be happy in life, you don’t need a billion dollars, you don’t need
to go to the moon, you don’t need to have the perfect wife, husband, career –
you can appreciate having a coffee at Starbucks. I can appreciate that I got in
my car and had heated seats. I’m not going to post that on Facebook, it’s not a
status update, it’s not anything epic. But you know what? I’m really grateful.”
Eighteen year old Rachel DeSilva, a senior at Spartanburg’s
Chapman High, joined Happier with the intention of becoming more optimistic.
“Before Happier I used Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr,” she says. “They're
completely different because mostly people try to down you or complain or show
how their life is better than yours in some way…But Happier is just everyone
sharing their happy moments of the day and instead of ‘liking’ their status,
you ‘smile’ at their happy moment. I personally love the confetti that it shows
when you share your happier moment.”
Kogan recently launched a 21-day gratitude course that can
be taken within the Happier app. She’s following that up with a 7-day
meditation course and, later, a short yoga course. It’s all about finding ways
to look for good things even when things don’t seem so good.
“It’s a place for teaching each other that these tiny
moments are there, even on the bad days,” says Kogan, “and, yeah, you actually
should appreciate them. It’s a moment, it’s not just the blur of life.”
