Happiness Jar

One of the best reasons to keep a gratitude journal is that you create a journal filled with positive moments. Looking back on your past memories can often bring more joy feelings than the practice of recording those moments in the first place.

Happyfeed is a mobile app that encourages positivity through simple actions:

• Record short memories and photos from your day
• Keep an organized diary of all the positive moments in your life
• Daily throwbacks, sharing options, and much more

You could visualize it as the practice of filling a jar of happiness with new notes, thoughts, and photos every day.

But what if you just want to view random past happy moments?

What is a Happiness Jar?

I was first introduced to the idea of a Happiness Jar when I read this blog post in Quartz from 2016.

There are many different ways to use a Happiness Jar but the concept is simple: a physical jar that you fill with happy memories (often on folded paper) that you can pull out at random. It's kind of like a cookie jar of hapiness instead of sugar and carbs. When life gets you down, the jar is there to cheer you up! 😊

It's kind of like a cookie jar of happiness instead of sugar and carbs.

There are a few key differences between the way a Happiness Jar and a gratitude journal work and the ways they can bring you joy.

• Happiness Jars favor randomness over organization.
• You can add memories to a Happiness Jar as often (or not often) as you like.
• Moments in a Happiness Jar are more like messages to your future self, which can help you reflect more deeply.

Of course, we thought the Happiness Jar was another perfect practice to try to digitize and add to Happyfeed! 🤓

How to Use the Happiness Jar

It's pretty easy to make a Happiness Jar when you already have (in some cases) hundreds of days of happy moments. So we found an empty corner of Happyfeed and added in our own Happiness Jar.

If you open up the Moments view in Happyfeed (from the bottom tab navigation bar) you'll see a little jar of happiness icon at the top left of the screen. Viewing your Happiness Jar is an simple as tapping that icon. Here's what we love about it:

• Discover hidden gems - The jar is completely random, so you're just as likely to see a memory from your first day as one from yesterday.
• Share options - You can share memories right from the jar. Just tap the share button and select anything from messages to Instagram.
• Back button - It's easy to accidentally tap one too many times. If you skip a favorite moment, you can go back to see it again.
• Unlimited happiness - You aren't limited to how long you're willing to scroll now. Whenever you need a happy boost, your happiness jar is the perfect solution.

Note: New users will not see the Happiness Jar until they've had Happyfeed for 2 weeks. We just thought it was too boring when you only have a few days to randomly choose from.

Shake Up those Jars of Happiness

We think the "shake" gesture is very underrated on your iPhone! So if you want to open up the Happiness Jar, you can also give your phone a shake on your history page. You can shake it again to see a random day. How you shake is up to you, but we definitely wouldn't discourage any full-body shakes to get yourself moving a bit 🕺.

If shaking isn't you thing, you can also tap and swipe. We don't discriminate against gestures.

Big Picture

So why did we build the happiness jar? It fits perfectly with the ethos of what we want Happyfeed to be: a place to escape social media and get to know yourself better. There’s a lot of power in learning what makes you happy and what made you happy in the past. Memories are crucial in teaching us where we're going next. If nothing else, maybe you’ll see a photo that triggers a feeling and floods your brain with positive emotions.

"Happyfeed grows with you"

We like to say that “Happyfeed grows with you,” and that feels even more true with this new feature. More moments means more days to choose from in your jar. The more you use Happyfeed, the more likely you are to pull up a day you completely forgot about.

Next time you’re feeling burned out on social media, give the Happiness Jar a shake!