The Happiness Series

During the first trimester of my pregnancy this past Summer, while battling the worst of my Hyperemesis Gravidarum, I found myself bedridden for months and unable to do anything but think.

Most of the time I was thinking about how much I didn’t want to vomit again and how much I wished the nausea would relent, but in order to push through mentally, I had to dig deep.

Hyperemesis Gravidarum is an extreme and very severe form of morning sickness.

It’s not your typical first trimester nausea that can be eased with ginger, crackers, and eating protein consistently. No, it’s something entirely different.

While I’m grateful to not have had the worst case of it, my situation still required constant bed rest, stepping back from work, and twice weekly hospital visits for fluid infusions.

Overnight I went from a highly functioning woman to one who was completely dependent on my husband and family for support.

Many women who have HG struggle with prenatal depression and anxiety and are at higher risk for postpartum depression, anxiety, and PTSD. HG is not a mental illness, but a physical one that can leave lasting scars on your psyche and have very real physical and emotional consequences.

Having been through a very challenging few years before I got pregnant, I was determined to stay as strong as I could psychologically, even when HG threatened to tear me down.

All throughout these months of bed rest and severe nausea and vomiting, I thought a lot about happiness, joy, and what makes life worth living.

I imagined my baby’s future and the things I’d want her to experience.

I thought about the kind of life, culture, and value system I wanted to create in our family.

And I realized that I had been spending far too much time thinking about people, things, and situations that didn’t really matter all that much in the grand scheme of things.

Life is such a precious gift, and regardless of our external circumstances, we get to choose whether we’re going to live as if it’s a blessing or a curse.

We get to decide whether we’re going to wait until all the stars align for us to be happy, or if we’re going to make the most of what we have right now.

The result of these personal musings is The Happiness Series; a collection of my personal writings on what I’ve come to believe are the ingredients for a joyful life.

These are becoming my personal pillars for happiness, the things I’m deciding to return to again and again no matter what’s happening around me.

As we rush towards the Holiday Season, I hope you’ll also use these lessons to help you anchor into what really matters in life.

With love,

Alex