The benefits of scheduling joy!
For many of us, life can feel like we’re on a never-ending hamster wheel of busyness. Our days are filled with ‘musts’, ‘have-tos’ and an endless stream of life's obligations; work pressures and deadlines, your family’s needs, parenting duties, social commitments, adulting-chores of running a household, maintaining your car, tending to bills, admin and the list goes on. The more we do, the more the wheel spins, and the faster we descend into feelings of overwhelm, stress, anxiety, and burn-out. Most people are on the same hamster wheel, so it feels ‘normal’ to push ourselves and deplete our energy because we’re told that’s how life works. We tend to follow this hamster wheel rhythm in six-month cycles, speeding up and hanging on for dear life until a Christmas ‘break’, which often isn’t really a break but a time of extra pressure and obligations. Summer, on the other hand, is when society tends to collectively slow down, as if we’re given an unspoken permission to stay on the wheel but run a bit slower.
Try as I might to break the rhythm, I’m guilty as charged of doing the same. Yet, what I look forward to the most in the summer is having time to do things that bring me joy. Joy can look like many things to many people; reading a book that you can’t put down, tending to the garden, walking in nature, cooking for friends, creating art or doing something crafty. Although this seems like more doing and more busyness, the feeling you get from joyful activities is different than managing day-to-day life. Joyful activities are meaningful because it’s something you love to do, rather than feel obliged to do. It’s energy giving, not draining.
Joy is a feeling of happiness, pleasure, ease, and a deep sense of inner contentment. When you’re engaged in a joyful activity, it can feel like time has disappeared. Your mind quietens, and body relaxes, which lowers your cortisol levels (stress hormone), and releases feel-good hormones like serotonin and endorphins. A regular joyful practice not only gives you more brain power by strengthening your neural connections, it also reduces stress, boosts your immune system, regulates your digestion, lowers blood pressure and has anti-inflammatory effects.
Here’s three steps to create a joyful practice:
Write a joy list. Remind yourself of the things that bring you joy. It doesn’t have to be expensive or bucket-list style activities. Think about the simple moments that make you smile and feel at ease like dancing in the kitchen, making shapes out of clouds, or doing a puzzle.
Schedule time. Creating joy is usually the last thing on our never-ending to-do list so blocking out time in your calendar is a way to honour your commitment to yourself. You might decide to have 45 minutes of joy-time every morning or evening, or every Sunday afternoon, or a full day to yourself every month. Find a rhythm that works for you!
Be in the moment. Your time for joy has arrived. Before diving into doing, slow down, take a few deep breaths, and ask yourself how you feel in this moment? You may have planned how you’d like to spend your time a few days ago yet what are your energy levels like right now? What will make you feel uplifted? Look at your joy list for inspiration!
Creating joy isn’t for the summer only! Doing things we love is a fundamental part of our wellbeing so my wish for you (and for me) is that your practice of scheduling joy gets you off the spinning hamster wheel and into a state of energy-giving contentment and happiness more often.