THE HAPPINESS PROJECT: Designing an Even Happier 2026
At this Story Owl workshop, we invite you to open a fresh notebook and sketch, page by page, your own 3-month Happiness Project, inspired by The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin. It’s not a copy of the author’s journey – it’s an intimate map, drawn to fit your life.
What we'll do:
🔹 Explore different areas of your life and understand where you are and where you want to go.
🔹 Create your own Personal Commandments – anchor phrases that remind you how you want to live, choose and relate to others.
🔹 Design a 3-month plan, with:
– 1 theme per month (energy, relationships, work, creativity, leisure… you decide);
– 3 to 5 concrete actions per month, small but powerful, doable in your daily life;
– a simple follow-up system, so you don’t end up with “good intentions” only.
All of this in true Story Owl atmosphere: slow time, tea or coffee, pens, paper, and that feeling that you’re writing an important chapter of your own story.
Who it’s for:
It’s for you if:
♦️ You feel that “nothing is terribly wrong”, but things could feel much better.
♦️ You’ve been on autopilot and want to reclaim intention, lightness and joy.
♦️ You’d love to have a plan – without rigidity, guilt or perfectionism.
♦️ You believe books can change lives, and you want to turn inspiration into action.
You don’t need to have read the book to join. The workshop is simply inspired by The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin; the whole experience is designed around your reality, here and now.
What you’ll take with you:
🔹 Your completed and reflected Happiness Life Wheel.
🔹 A page with your Personal Commandments.
🔹 A 3-month Happiness Project that is clear, concrete and realistic.
🔹 A first step taken – and, who knows, the feeling that you’re finally writing a story in which you enjoy being the main character.
If you feel that gentle pull to take better care of yourself, your routines and your dreams, this might be your quiet but powerful turning point.
Come and draw your Cartography of Happiness at Story Owl.
The rest of the chapter will be written with you.
Your instructor for this workshop:
Catarina Alves de Sousa is a writer, creative copywriter and co-founder of Story Owl, a bookshop–café dedicated to stories, readers and slow creativity.
Over the last years, she has changed her life in big, visible ways — publishing a book, opening a bookshop–café and redesigning her work around what she loves most. But it’s in the small shifts that she continues to find the biggest meaning: one new habit, one honest conversation, one tiny decision that quietly changes the direction of a year.
In THE HAPPINESS PROJECT: Designing an Even Happier 2026 Workshop, Catarina brings together her love of books, her experience as an author and her gentle-but-firm approach to accountability to help you pause, listen to yourself and deliberately design a year that feels lighter, truer and happier — starting with small, doable changes you can begin right now.
