We all do it, stress ourselves out over tiny things and these impact the way we feel on a daily basis. If things aren’t going the way you might have hoped at work or school, or that driver in front of you just made the most asinine manoeuvre ever exhibited on the planet, you (and I) get wound up and if these little irritations pile up, you’re due for a bit of an outburst.
That is why it is important to remember the little, daily things that bring us great joy, so we have something to counteract the not so great things in our lives. I’m not talking about things like graduating, getting a new job or finding the love of your life, I’m talking about those little things we might not even notice, but when we stop to think about them we realize what joy they bring us.
So here’s my list of 10 tiny things that make me ridiculously happy.
1) Bundling up under the blankets of my bed and really snuggling down. On par with that is waking up on a lazy Sunday and stretching out while making sounds not heard since dinosaurs roamed the earth.
2) Walking past a bakery that just baked fresh bread. There’s just something so comforting about the smell of freshly baked bread, not to sound corny or cliché but it makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside.
3) Catching a funny part of someone elses conversation while in a public space. One of the best places for this is public transportation. Take off your headphones and look up from your smartphones (*after you’ve finished reading this post of course) and pay attention to the people around you, it might make you smile.
4) Scalding hot showers.
5) Finding that perfect parking spot right in front of your door (for those of you who live in a busy city, you know what I mean).
6) Skipping; perhaps not the most practical and efficient mode of transportation but it brings out this natural childish innocence that usually remains hidden deep underneath a bunch of adult nonsense. For the male readers: I’m aware that skipping probably isn’t a very manly thing to do, but I’m sure you’d get the same joy once you put that silly thing called shame aside.
7) The fact that there ALWAYS is black sand in my hair. I go horseback riding 2 or 3 times a week in an area that has the finest black sand. Even after coming straight out of the shower I’ll find residual miniscule black grains of sand.
8) Driving with the windows down when the weather is nice and pretending your hand is a dolphin. *Caution! Don’t let the hand-dolphin distract you from traffic. Especially for those with vivid imaginations and a tendency to create back-stories. The fact that Hank the hand-dolphin is training to win the world cup speed swimming so he can provide for his family is not more important than on-coming traffic!
9) Hearing a song you haven’t heard since your very early teens and being able to sing perfectly along to all the words!
10) Having a pet. Seeing my dog makes me insanely happy, all he has to do is look at me and I just melt. No matter how many times he yawns, every time he does it I think it’s the cutest thing ever and it makes me want to squeeze him to bits (in a loving way).
So there you have it, some not so obvious joy-givers and some that would make any person happy. What are some little things that bring you intense joy?
Eye of the Beholder 