Weekly: Enjoy yourself

A lovely quote to ponder this weekend, from Ralph Waldo Emersen, written in Culture, Beauty, Behavior:

“There is no beautifier of complexion, or form, or behavior, like the wish to scatter joy and not pain around us.”

In today's newsletter, we're covering one great way to find more joy in your life, so you can keep scattering it, too.

Have a great weekend,
Stephanie Harrison, founder of The New Happy

This Week

Here's a secret of happiness: there's a lot of enjoyment in the present moment, if you just slow down and notice it.

Savoring the present moment — paying deep attention to your experience — is related to resilience, well-being, optimism, and happier relationships.

It all starts with taking control of your attention.

Your attention is one of the most important factors for your overall happiness: what you pay attention to shapes your life and your well-being.

Think of your attention like a flashlight. You can move it around and focus it on specific items, but it can only illuminate a very narrow part of the world at once.

Our brains are not very good at staying in the present moment. They also possess a negativity bias, constantly looking for threats and problems, anticipating where things can go wrong, and ruminating on the past.

Here’s a little exercise you can try to practice savoring:

Pause whatever you’re doing.
Notice what your flashlight is illuminating at that moment.
Consciously move your flashlight to something around that you that is positive, beautiful, or good.
Keep your flashlight on it for at least 10-20 seconds. Allow yourself to really appreciate it, acknowledge how good it feels, and soak it in.

You can play around with ways of savoring — use your senses, close your eyes, try to take a mental picture, imagine revisiting this moment in the future, picture the feeling coming into your body…

What joy is right here?

More Tips and Tools 

1. Be kind anyways — This week's animation is about self-compassion.

2. Five minutes of care — How to practice self-care, even in the middle of chaos and hard times.

3. Three questions — Change your relationship wiht your self.

4. We don't need more stuff — It won't fulfill you.

5. Try on a new lens — Shift your perspective.

Or listen to the podcast episodes (Apple, Spotify) from this week!

Community

What do you do for fun?

"Dance Argentine tango for fun every week:) it brings me so much joy!"

"I garden. I start seeds, nurture them, then at the right time plant outside. More nurturing; weed, water, provide support, inspect, prune, and ultimately i pick the harvest. Then I start all over again."

“Play badminton.”

“Food photography and blogging!”

“Draw my thoughts in an abstract style.”

“I am 18 and with my friend at school we sometimes randomly say to each other “jump!” and we jump.”

Read more