My own happiness project: Eliminating OCD

I'm more than halfway through Gretchen Rubin's The Happiness Project. I'm pretty happy. Should I start my own happiness project?

I'm always reading and taking time most mornings to write in a journal but I realized yesterday that I much prefer typing. My handwriting ahs gotten progressively worse and my typing is pseeding and legible. I'm getting goff topic.

My reference points are often big events in my life like Mom's death, my breakup with my first partner all and escaping for a 3 year teaching stint in Europe. All this came within a few months.

Years later moving back to Canada, comes Dad's death while J and I were vacationing in Europe and Jacques long, scary and almost fatal illness a few months afterwards. I pretty sure I suffered a form of post traumatic stress which developped into a form of OCD. I still have a presciption pad with "Let Go" written on it by my GP.

I can still function. Go out with friends, go to work, etc. Yet, there are things that I need to check repeatedly which sometimes make me late for meetings with friends, but I can control myself to make it to work on time. BTW, I work about 400 metres from my house.

My OCD had even kept me from going away without J in fear that something might happen to him. Luckily, last summer I ahd a couple of wonderful opportunities to go away for incredibly enriching weekend getaways with friends or for a wonderful 3 day workshop.

Here is a list of things I check repeatedly that I would like to eliminate:

1. Is the dryer on and is their an accumulation of lint?

2. Is the cat indoors? (BTW, we have an indoor cat, where else could she be?)

3. Is there a candle lit in the bathroom? (It's been a long time since there has even been a candle in the bathroom.)

4. Are all of my gadgets turned off in my study?

5. Are all of the computers off and unplugged? (I used to even remove the battery from my laptop before leaving the house. This is getting tedious isn't it?)

6. Is the front door locked? (We hardly ever use the front door except in the summer months to sit on the front porch.)

7. Is everything turned off in the kitchen? Stove? Oven? Coffeemaker unplugged? Kettle unplugged?

And now if I manage to get out the door without going back in to check again....

8. (When I've just locked the kitchen door.) Is the kitchen door locked?

What could I possibly eliminate from this list?

Which would be the easiest thing to eliminate? The stupid non-exitant candle in the bathroom? Yeah, maybe.