I'm Gretchen Rubin and this is a little happier. On the happier podcast, my sister Elizabeth

often talks about the value of reframing. And I remember a conversation I had with my mother

when she gave me a huge happiness boost by showing me how I could reframe a challenging situation.

This was when Jamie and I had just bought our first apartment and it needed a lot of work so we

had to pick furniture and wallpaper and paint and make a lot of decisions. And I was feeling kind

of overwhelmed by this and my husband was just not interested in talking about it or helping

me make decisions or think through what needed to be done. And I was complaining to my mom about

this and my mother said, huh, well, maybe it's good that Jamie doesn't care about the renovation.

That means you can just do whatever you want. And I realized that's true. I mean, Jamie wanted

our apartment to be nice, but he would have been satisfied with anything that I was satisfied with.

And this way I could just do whatever I wanted, make the decisions I wanted without having to

really talk to him about it. He didn't want to be talked to about it. By helping me reframe the

situation, my mother allowed me to feel grateful rather than resentful at my husband's attitude.

I'm Gretchen Rubin and I hope this makes your week a little happier.