Happiness Boosters

“Gather ye rosebuds while ye may.”  Robert Herrick ( 17^th century English poet)

No time for what you want to do?  Are you overworked;  perhaps you’re a single parent holding down a couple of jobs.  Are you juggling a lot? Maybe you’re a caregiver; or maybe you’re pulled in so many directions because that’s how life is all too much of the time.

We get so caught up with what we have to do, we can’t even think about what we’d like to do.

“Life is too short to do what I have to do; it’s barely long enough to do what I want to do.”  Tal Ben-Shahar

But in order to reap some well-being and yes, happiness, we must bring in some of those things we really like.   It’s not an all or nothing deal.  If we can’t (for the time being at least) have the job , relationship, leisure time that we’d like, we can incorporate small doses of what’s important to us.

We may not be able to leave everything in our life to take on what we really want, but we can spend an hour or two during the week in activities that give us excitement, that feed us a sense of purpose and meaning.  Engaging in our interests even for this brief period of time can enhance our overall state of wellbeing and can have a positive effect on us.  Our day, our week can begin to feel different as we add in small doses of our ‘wants’.

We call these small, short interludes happiness boosters.

Here are some examples:

• Dinner with a close friend, with whom we feel connected to and can have some great and stimulating talks.
• A class of our {high} interest.  If we can’t work as an artist, we can partake in an art course.
• Listening to uplifting or energizing music or reading that great escape novel (or inspirational memoir).
• Volunteering  for that special something.  My personal example:  I love children’s books and I love reading to kids.  So I just signed on (2 hours a week) to volunteer to read to children in a hospital clinic waiting room. (Reach Out and Read)
• A walk out in nature.

Since my mom is old and frail and I’m an only child, I made the decision this year that I can no longer travel at this point; unless I go alone and hubby stays home to deal with whatever health situations may come up.  I’m a huge travel lover.  But the time has come to put this on hold.  So I give myself small happiness travel boosters.  I go on day outings more often; we go away for a weekend here and there (not more than a couple of hours away) .

 

What little snippets of happiness do you incorporate into your day, your week?  What are your happiness boosters?

Thanks for stopping by.  Love to read your thoughts here.