Six Ways to Prime Yourself for Joy

      1. Create a happiness playlist. Include your favorite, joyful songs that have no negative memories attached. Try playing this playlist for 5 days and see how you feel.

   2. Remove everything in your house associated with negative memories, relationships, or hard times. Photos, furniture, or those tax papers lying around! Put them away if you don’t want to remove them.

   3. Gather together images or quotes, like on Pinterest, that give you a sense of joy to look at. Look at them every day for a week. Keep adding to them. Make a board specifically for joy.

     4.   Get outside or near nature. We live in a beautiful world! When we stop and notice the trees, the blueness of the sky, the breeze, we give ourselves a chance to slow down, and we give our minds a break. Try walking without a plan, purpose, or destination. Allow yourself to notice at least 3 beautiful parts of nature. Recommended dose: at least 5 minutes a day.

5.  Gather a list of people who inspire you. Read their blogs – at least one – per day. Meaningful, heartfelt blogs – to me --- are the best. As human beings, we all seek meaning. I love Panache Desai, Oprah, and Openhand. Just reading their writings gives me an energetic boost of joy.

    6.  And, lastly, take note of how you feel. A huge part of feeling joy is bringing your attention to when you do feel it. Allow yourself to really savor the feelings, the sensations in your body. Whether you’re drinking a cup of tea (I’ve recently started making iced cinnamon tea), or sitting in the sun, allow yourself to really drink in the feelings of pleasure which emerge in relation to the world. 

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    Dr. Heather Schwartz is an integrative psychologist who delights in working with kind and expressive people seeking more inspiration, joy, and connection in their lives.