For True Happiness, Seek Joy in Life's Simple Pleasures
Nothing beats a cup of tea and a great book. If you’re a reader (and you should be) nothing compares to a really good book. It’s like having dinner every night with the most interesting and captivating person in the world. Having a bad day? Nothing a glass of wine and a hot bath can’t fix (or so I’ve heard). Personally, I can’t drink wine (I get migraines) and I just don’t do baths — I get bored after three minutes and simply cannot sit still in water for that long. But I’ve known women who swear by the healing and therapeutic powers of a nice hot bath. For me, it’s always been working in the garden or going hiking. I need to be outdoors to truly be happy. I’ve noticed that the second I walk outside my mood lifts.
I’ve also noticed that you cannot really be in a bad mood when you are dancing, playing a musical instrument, or singing. Music is a celebration of life, and dance especially is a celebration of life, of being alive. These days I’ve been watching world-class symphonies on YouTube performing Beethoven, which I hate to confess, I’ve never really listened to in the past. Listening to the genius of Beethoven performed by so many incredible musicians who have dedicated their entire lives to this music and their instrument is inspiring on many levels, and in ways that are hard to even put into words. All I can say is faith in humanity restored! Thank you beautiful people!
I have also taken up bird watching — go figure! Well, I’ve always been fascinated by wildlife and I just happen to live along Florida’s Great Birding Trail. I have also learned that if you look at birds through binoculars, suddenly everything looks like a scene from a National Geographic documentary.
I also get really happy (I mean extremely happy) riding my bike — it makes me feel like a kid again! If you have bike trails in your town, I strongly suggest getting a bike (just don’t ride at night or on the street, dear, if at all possible, and always wear brightly colored clothing and a helmet).
Watching a good film with popcorn is a nice little treat at the end of the day (sometimes the popcorn is the best part). Sometimes we don’t appreciate these little things until we don’t have them anymore. While living in Santa Fe, New Mexico I often went to this old funky art house theater to watch the latest independent films with a friend. We ate bad popcorn (even bad popcorn is good), and watched slightly out of focus artsy movies on small screens. Often it was snowing outside and there wasn’t much else to do. Boy do I miss that old theater and the ability to see the latest independent films for very little money. I even miss the bad popcorn.
I also miss hiking in the hills above Santa Fe. It was something I took for granted when I lived there, but now I live in Florida! No hills, but I ride my bike whenever I can and go to the beach a lot. Yes, it’s good to do the big “bucket list” trips once in a while, but you can’t fly in a hot air balloon over the wildebeest migration in Africa every weekend.
Sometimes the happiest people are the people who have very little, because they’ve figured out how to find joy in everyday things, in simple pleasures. They don’t mope around complaining about how the world did them wrong. They just enjoy life itself — actually being alive — and all of life's simple pleasures!
Try to become an expert finding joy in life’s everyday pleasures, like cooking, gardening, music, making an incredible cup of coffee or tea, bird-watching, hiking — anything you can do on a daily or weekly basis in or near your home.
Also keep in mind that if it takes a lot to make you happy, you will probably not be happy most of the time. It’s okay to have expensive tastes, to have a crazy bucket list, to crave adventure, but you still have to find the joy in everyday things along the way. Never associate happiness with expensive things, big goals and monumental events.
Happiness must be found in the smallest and most routine tasks of day-to-day life, in life itself — a walk, a bike ride, a fresh cup of coffee, a good book, working in your garden, lunch with a friend, a hot bath. Try to appreciate life's simple pleasures.
#happiness #joy #advice #wellness #wellbeing #minimalism
Rebecca Pavlik is the author of Time to Break Some Rules, Sweetie! a humorous advice book for young women. For more details and to view on Amazon click here.