Joyful Living – A Spoonful of Joy

Enhance Your Mindfulness: The Power of Hearing

We have discussed how being mindful can help alleviate stress and anxiety and increase happiness levels. I did a post on using your sense of sight to increase mindfulness. You can find it here.

This post is about the magical sense of hearing and how to use it be more mindful in your daily life.

First up is music. Music is so important to your wellbeing. It can lift your mood, motivate you to get moving, comfort you when you’re feeling low, and even transport you to another time and place. If you use music correctly, it is like having a soundtrack for your life.

Create your own playlists on music streaming services such as Spotify or Pandora. I have playlists for special times during the year and special occasions. For example, I have a summer vacation playlist, a playlist for when I want warm, cozy winter vibes, a morning get-your-butt-out-of-bed playlist, and a playlist for getting pumped to exercise. I have playlists full of happy, upbeat songs (such as “Walking on Sunshine” by Katrine and the Waves) for when I’m in a great mood or want to be in a great mood and I have playlists full of angsty, melancholy songs for when I just need to sit with my feelings for a while. I even playlists for “spa time” in the shower. Sometimes, instead of music, I will play the sound of ocean waves or rain falling when I am trying to go to sleep.

You can also create playlists to figuratively transport you to another time or place. I have a mild obsession with French culture, so I often play French cafe music in the background when I want that chic French girl vibe. I also play music from my teenage years when I’m feeling particularly nostalgic. It is amazing how one song can take you back 2o years and you can remember what you were doing and who you were with the last time you heard it. Music is so powerful. Use it as your secret weapon to help navigate life.

Stop and appreciate other sounds as well. Pause for a moment when you walk out to check your mail–what sounds do you hear? Birds singing? Squirrels scampering up trees? Children laughing as they play down the street? Close your eyes and be thankful for the sounds around you. You’re alive and part of a big, beautiful world.

When you’re at the beach, soak in the sounds of the ocean waves hypnotically lapping on the shore, the sea gulls cawing, the families that are laughing and enjoying each other’s company. Even in the city, you can soak in the sounds and be thankful–the constant hum and murmur of the people who make the city so exciting, the sounds of cars and trucks buzzing through the busy streets.

And when you’re with others–your family, friends, coworkers, and even people you may meet at the grocery store–truly listen to them. Don’t interrupt to put your two cents in. We have two ears and one mouth for a reason. People love to be listened to. It makes them feel important and valued.

Your assignment today is to pick one song that gives you “the feels” you want to be in and to write a list of your top 5 favorite sounds.

Mine are:
1. rain falling with thunder rumbling in the distance
2. the sound of waves lapping on the shore
3. my mother’s voice
4. when someone laughs so hard, they snort
5. my cat purring

What are yours?

I hope you enjoyed this post. I’ll see you next time to talk about the power of smell!

Enhance Your Happiness Through Mindfulness: The Power of Sight

I’m sure you’ve heard the buzzword “mindfulness” thrown around the past few years. Psychologists and medical doctors are in agreement that mindfulness can decrease depression, help you regulate your emotions, and decrease stress and anxiety.

Being mindful simply means taking notice of what is around you at the present moment and being fully present to what you find. One of the best ways to practice mindfulness is to utilize the gift of your 5 senses to take in as much information about the world around you as possible.

Some people seem to live their lives with blinders on. But people who have a true zest for life take note of all of the good around them. That zest for life is contagious and attracts others to them. So, how do we use our senses to be more mindful and as a result at least a little bit happier? I want to do a whole series of posts about the 5 senses. Today, let’s focus on the gift of the sense of sight.

If you see something beautiful, for the love of all that is good, STOP! Physically stop and take the time to examine whatever you found more closely. Don’t just roll past it like a speeding freight train.

Say, for example, that you are walking down a sidewalk and look down to see a small wildflower growing through a crack in the pavement. What do you do? Pause, bend down, and admire it! Marvel at the strength it took for this little wildflower to push through in such an unforgiving environment. Take note of the color and shape of the petals and the delicateness of the stem holding it up.

Choose to take in beautiful sights–the twinkling stars that look like diamonds thrown against a black velvet sky, a sunset filled with only the best shades of orange, pink, and purple, a bouquet of fresh flowers in a vase on your kitchen countertop. Before you eat a meal, whether at a restaurant or at home, take a moment to appreciate the beauty of the creation–the colors, the shapes, the artful plating.

Go for a nature walk and make it a challenge to find beautiful things someone else might overlook, such as the deep emerald shade of the moss growing on a tree trunk, the way the sunlight catches on a leaf making it look like it’s glowing, or the many different color feathers on the birds you see along the way.

I loved how the light made these lonely red leaves look like they’re glowing red.

Snap pictures of everything you find beautiful. I have a friend who posts her unusual nature finds on her Instagram page, and I thoroughly enjoy seeing what she posts. She snaps pictures of everything from spiderwebs to unusually shaped trees and has even photographed a snake or two. She’s a fun person to be around in general, and I think part of her charm is the happiness she gets from her nature discoveries. You can also snap pictures of your food, a beautiful vignette at a hotel, a funny shaped cloud that looks like a dinosaur eating a slice of pizza, or the way the light changes the colors of everything during “golden hour”. Take lots of pictures! You don’t have to post them on social media, but it’s always nice to look back through your camera roll and remember all of the beauty you’ve seen in your life.

Water droplets on a banana leaf plant that I thought looked beautiful

Choose beautiful things—whether it’s your outfit for the day or the pillows on your couch. When given a choice, choose something that will make you feel happier when you look at it, something that speaks to your sense of beauty. Surround yourself with beauty as much as possible. Visit art museums, take nature walks, and travel to take in new sights. When one of your friends, family members, or coworkers is wearing something pretty or looks particularly spiffy, tell them! People love compliments.

So, here’s your assignment: use your gorgeous eyes to spot gorgeous things. Find 3 things today that are beautiful to your eyes and take a picture of them. It doesn’t have to be anything fancy, just something you would find in your everyday life. I promise you will feel a little happier for doing so.

Thanks for reading! I hope you have a truly wonderful day filled with beauty and love. I’ll be back to post about using mindfulness with the other senses soon.

How to Actually Have More Gratitude

It seems like everywhere you turn these days, someone is preaching at you to have more gratitude. That if you have more gratitude, you will somehow magically have a better, happier life. Write down 3 things you’re thankful for every day, they say. It will turn your life around, they say. Is this true, though?

Well, I am here to tell you that it is true. Having gratitude can absolutely improve your life and make you feel at least marginally happier. In the world we live in today, even making our lives feel marginally happier sounds like an impossible task. The key is to experience gratitude correctly.

A lot of experts recommend having a gratitude journal where you write down 3 things you are grateful every morning or every night before you go to bed. I have tried this approach. I would write down: 1) family, 2) cat, 3) food. The next night might look like: 1) friends, 2) hot water, 3) air conditioning. And so on. Yes, I am grateful for all of the things I wrote down, but I have to be honest, just writing out a list of things like I’m jotting down what I need to pick up from the grocery store…did…not…help…me. I didn’t see any benefits of my “gratitude journal”. It felt like a waste of my time. I certainly didn’t feel any happier. I felt like I couldn’t even do a gratitude journal correctly, which only added to my self-esteem.

I decided to try a different approach. Instead of writing down 3 things every night, I narrowed my focus to one singular event, person, or thing that was the highlight of my day. I then used my gratitude journal to write in detail about this one source of gratitude. For example, instead of just jotting down the word cat in amongst a list of other good things, I wrote entirely about my cat and why I am grateful for him. See my example below:

Tucker is asleep beside me as I write in this journal. I am so very grateful that he came into my life. He is gray and white and oh so fluffy. I had lost my cat Milo about 3 months before getting Tucker. Losing Milo was devastating. I didn’t think I had it in me to get another cat, because I never wanted to feel that pain again. My family knew better, though, and 3 months later I found myself relenting to my cousin’s request to adopt one of her new kittens. I was to pick a kitten from a litter of 5. After holding and loving on each kitten, Mr. Tucker climbed me like a tree, curled up in the crook of my neck, and promptly went to sleep.

“Well, she chose me,” I told my family. Yes, I said she, because at the time I was told that Tucker was a girl and I introduced her to everyone as Emma Kate. It wasn’t until a trip to the vet where I discovered that HE needed a name change. Ha. So, now I have the fattest, fluffiest, most handsome cat in the world. He loves to curl up beside my head when I’m reading in bed, sit on my lap when I’m watching TV, and gets very jealous if my laptop takes his place. I often find myself balancing my laptop on a pillow to the side so Tucker can rightfully claim his lap. A few days ago, I had a terrible headache, and Tucker wouldn’t leave my side. The furthest he got was atop the couch cushion where I was laid out on the couch trying to nap with an ice pack at the back of my skull.

I will be grateful forever that he chose to be my happy little boy. He has brought nothing but joy and love to me. So, thank you, Tucker.

Gratitude is short for great attitude. So, which gratitude entry do you think actually changed my attitude and made me feel…I don’t know…grateful? I assure it was the last one. Did it take longer to write? Yes. Did it take more effort and energy? Yes. Did it make me feel happier when I was finished? Yes. Was it worth it? Absolutely.

If you find that the typical gratitude journal is just not helping you, I challenge you to try this new approach. Narrow your focus. Make it a game to pick out the one good thing that is worthy of your time and energy and attention, so that you actually have more gratitude and therefore more happiness.

Until next time, I hope you have wonderful and joy filled day!