Creating Joy

Joy is found in simple pleasures. Acknowledge those moments when joy is present before they slip away. You may have to seek out joy, if it doesn’t find you.

Every day, joy is lurking just waiting to be discovered. In spite of busy lifestyles, pains and woes about money, relationships, health, the future and the present, there are pleasurable moments that can be yours. You can find joy all around you, if you remember to look.

Appreciation of those precious moments can soothe a headache, dissolve your work and life stress and make you pause to remember how really amazing each moment can really be.

Simple Pleasures to Appreciate Today:

1. Savor each bite of food and give your taste buds a heavenly treat. Food tastes
much better when you chew slowly and pay attention to the flavors, the smells,
the colors and the total presentation.

2. Look for inspiration in a poem or a quote that allows you to see the world, the
weather, children, anything and everything in a different and special way from
the ordinary today.

3. Practice moments of kindness. There’s nothing like seeing the face of someone
you care for light up because of something that you’ve done or said. When you
make them feel special or make their lives a little easier, you feel good, too.

4. Sharing moments of natural beauty, sharing laughter and hugs are wonderful
joy-filled moments that may never come around again in quite the same way so
experience them to the max!

5. Beckoning sunrises, red–orange sunsets, full golden moons and a night sky
sprinkled with a thousand stars are here to be appreciated. Beauty is
everywhere if your eyes are open and you stay present with each moment.

6. Children and Grandchildren can erase gloomy thoughts with their bouncing energy,
unending hugs, bundles of enthusiasm, and their delight and surprise with
everything around them which includes you.

7. The overflowing trust and endless love of your pet, who greets you at the door
with excitement and sheer joy in your homecoming.

8. Sing or wail to your heart’s content in the shower or in the car when out of
earshot of family or friends. No matter if you can’t keep a tune, no one has to
know. Your pet won’t mind and may even chime in. Give your vocal chords some
exercise, pump up those endorphins and feel the joy come right through you.

9. Certain scents and warm home associations like the scent of baked cinnamon, and
hot chocolate or roasted chestnuts for me. Each of us has them. Pass a bakery
or breathe in smells from food cooking in the kitchen and your mood can
transform.

When we cultivate moments of joy, we make them ours forever, embedded in our memories and our hearts. They can uplift us when we need an extra lift and show us the wonders that life still has to offer us.