JOY TIPS #1

Brought to you by me getting to day #24 on my meditation app (How is writing 1k for 400+ days in a row so much easier than being quiet and breathing for five minutes a day?! O.o)

The last six years have been a seriously tough time for me. Things aren’t super easy now either, but what makes all the difference is having ways to cope with it, so I thought I’d share some of those ways with you guys.

Pick and choose, set a reminder on your phone to repeat them every Wednesday or something (of course every day is better, but one of the secrets is that every Wednesday is still a LOT better than never). Hope they bring you some joy! 

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio

Joy Tips:

• Make your password an affirmation (you can replace some letters with numbers or @ or what-have-you), which is to say, something you want to believe. E.g: I’m proud of me.

• The HA HA trick

• Watch comedy at dinner/before bed (I mean, ideally meditate before bed, but if you are gonna indulge, go for the laughs so you end the day on a high note. Plus jokes aren’t page-turnery so when you get tired, you can let go more easily). If you’re blanking, Youtube and Netflix are good places to start.

• Put a sticky note on the wall with a reminder of who you want to be. E.g: I’m organised. Random variation: if you are shy and people will see, run it through a translator into a language no one around you knows. Write the English translation on the back, the act of seeing it and having to think of what it means is another way of pay attention and making it memorable and present.

• Make a list of your top 10 comfort reads. Stick the list somewhere visible, such as a googledoc on your phone’s front screen.
  

• Schedule emails at random times for the upcoming month to remind yourself of five things you have accomplished with your hard work, or five things you have survived because you are a tough cookie, or five things you are grateful for. It’s a lovely surprise for Future!You and present you will definitely enjoy the praise.
  

• Give the mirror a compliment. If you can! This was incredibly hard for me for a long time, but the more you practice, the less silly it feels and the easier it is to smile back.
  

• Go cuddle someone—human, pet, teddy, tree.

• Go write down everything you are angry/sad/confused about so it stops taking up room in your brain. We keep thinking that talking about something will make it more real, but really, any process of getting something toxic out is unpleasant for a short while and a relief for ages.

• Sit down and meditate for 10 minutes (bonus point if you do it sitting outside somewhere), and no, you can’t do it wrong. But if sitting makes you anxious, go for a walk phoneless instead and try to notice five things you haven’t seen before in the area.

And once you are a little quieter and emptier, go read a book, you earned it!

Any joy tips for me? I never tire of trying new ones!

P.S: One thing that makes me happy are my new shiny covers, look :p