Small Pockets of Joy

What are you doing to find joy in your life?

I think I’ve struggled most of my life with obsessive habits, tending to revolve around fitness and work. In some regards, I don’t blame myself completely, as environmental factors definitely played a part. However, I know it is also on you to recognize your struggles and weaknesses, and work on fixing them. Ironically, right before the pandemic is when I set out to start working on these changes. I remember telling my therapist, “it’s time to make some changes to my life”. There was one small problem though, the next few days the world shut-down. This didn’t lend itself so well to completely transforming your life, when you’re just trying to survive - financially, socially, and medically. Now though, there isn’t much of an excuse. Summer sunshine has been here for a while. My fitness is back to where you want it to be. And, I have the space to notice the mistakes I’ve made in my life.

Here are some things I’m doing to move forward into the future with more presence and joy:

1. Slowing down: Actions such as, driving a little less, and biking a little more. Focusing on a few priorities a day, rather than many. Allowing things to happen, versus, constantly fighting for change.

2. De-cluttering my life. Whether that means, getting rid of some things and objects, like extra gadgets and/or clothing. Committing to a few less plans, for someone who always wants to do activities and be on the go. Or, removing some subscriptions, services, and the like. Organization has never been my strong suit outside of work, however, the noises and stressors of modern day life have definitely made it worse.

3. Presence: Learning to bring my whole self somewhere, less distracted by financial, work, and relationship stress. I distinctly, remember thinking as myself as an outlier in my twenties, as I was always working in my head, thinking this was a gift. Now, while, I admit that this is something that I’ll always struggle with on some level, it is important for me to give myself space to unwind and relax.

4. Taking things day-by-day. I’ll never have it all figured out, therefore, the defence against that is to just take it day by day. One step at a time.

I wanted to know, what are some small things that you do for joy each day?