5 Life Hacks To Make Joy A Priority
Tried and tested ways to multiply joy in everyday life.
Okay, if you showed up to read this, chances are you want to make joy your everyday business. Well, I am glad you do! Because why would anyone want to be happy (or content) only on certain days when you can choose it every day?!
So, let’s dive right in:
01 Eat What You Love
Count your blessings, not your calories.
The number one way to get through your day feeling joy is to eat something that makes your body feel good after you have finished eating it. A concept I probably grasped 28 years late in my life, but I am completely savouring the learning.
Let me simplify this with an example. If eating a slice of cake makes you feel good, even after you have finished eating it, eat the damn cake. Eat it every day. Be grateful that you can afford it. Grateful that you have access to it. Just indulge in it shamelessly!
However, if you eat cake and later feel horrible about eating it. Either your body doesn’t accept it well (trust your gut!) or you hop on a little guilt trip for eating those calories — hold back the urge to indulge. No temporary pleasure is worth feeling horrible later. Because it’s not about how you feel while you are eating as much as it is important how you feel later. The latter feeling lasts much longer, and that’s what you need to pay attention to. It’s all about living mindfully!
02 Languish Like A King
Some days when I don’t feel like working, I simply don’t work. Now, this doesn’t come easily. We have tricked our brains for years into cycling towards the eternal productivity game but you can do this. Think of it as an emergency sick leave or a surprise holiday for yourself. Just one day out of the bulk holiday leaves that you never end up exhausting altogether anyway. Do not work. Savour life for what it is. Don’t force yourself to look at a screen when every cell in your body tells you not to.
Read a book. Take a walk. Meet a friend. Pick up a new skill. Revisit an old hobby. Catch up with an old colleague. Help your partner or family member with a chore. The days you languish are the best days to learn something new.
03 Exercise In Some Form
Everyone’s body is different. Everyone’s need for movement is different. The way I choose to move is very different from how you choose to move. Find a sport or activity that suits your body type and current fitness levels. By squeezing in a workout in some form every day, your body is stimulated to produce BDNF (brain-derived neurotrophic factor). It is a protein that signals neural pathways in your brain to enhance learning and memory formation. Exercising also helps your body and brain produce other hormones and neurotransmitters like serotonin and endorphins, which help boost your overall sense of well-being.
04 Build Real Connections With People
If the pandemic has taught me one thing — I have started to cherish my time with friends and family a lot more because you don’t know how short life is. All you have is today. Sometimes we worry so much about securing our future that we forget to build real connections and engage in real talk with people around us. Dismissing a conversation or brushing an argument under the carpet only comes to bite you back later. Believe me, the conversation you hold back on now will come back to complete the cycle when you will be busy with something else again. So by dealing with it today, you’re being frugal about your future time. Building real connections with people allows you to stay present in the moment which leads to more joy!
Reassess people around you. Take two minutes to think of five people closest to you. Write down their names on a piece of paper and see how you feel. What are the thoughts that come into your head? Do you feel grateful for their presence or do you feel like you want to pull your hair out? You could even land somewhere in the middle. A confused middle ground where you are not sure is okay too! Depending on where you land, you know you have got your work cut out for yourself. By reassessing the people you spend the most time with, you can discover whether you’re chasing joy or negative energy.
Surround yourself with people that make you feel good!
05 Cultivate a Growth Mindset
When you wake up every morning with a willingness to do better every day, you’re automatically chasing joy!
Ask questions. Listen actively. Be curious about the world that surrounds you. Open yourself up to new experiences and challenge your worldview every day. People who cultivate a growth mindset yearn for self-improvement. They want to push boundaries, set higher targets and don’t shy away from challenges. They enjoy the process of creation (the journey) as much as the result (the destination).
By treating your failures and shortcomings as opportunities for growth, you embrace self-awareness and self-compassion, thereby leading a happier, content life.
To sum up —
Cultivating joy in everyday life is a journey, not a destination. One where you need to prioritize your needs, ambitions and your health. Cutting out negative self-talk is a great first step in this direction. While this sums up my recipe for cultivating joy, yours could be different. So, hop off the ferris wheel and make yourself happy today!
