“Your life could be transformed by this one simple act: making it a priority to do the things you enjoy.” ~Anna Papij
One of my favorite Facebook pages is that of the Tiny Buddha. The articles shared are helpful, thought-provoking and uplifting. Yesterday I read one titled, “Create More Joy in Your Life by Prioritizing Things You Enjoy Doing”. The author, Anna Papij, talks about the importance of “actively creating joy in life” and choosing happiness. She found herself getting so caught up in her work that she was neglecting the activities which bring her happiness. So she made a list:
“I wrote down every single activity I enjoy. I wrote down every single activity I hadn’t tried but wanted to. And I wrote down every single place I wanted to visit.”
This got me thinking and I decided to follow her lead. As I was thinking about what activities I enjoy one of the first which came to mind was coloring. Yes, I like to color. My mom had three kids in four and a half years so she didn’t have a lot of time to just sit and play with us. However I do remember her coloring with me when I was perhaps 3 or 4. I’ve always loved to color and the scent of Crayola crayons is a favorite of mine.
I haven’t colored anything for perhaps two years or more but a couple of months ago I printed off some adult coloring sheets. And then never got around to coloring them. Last night I decided to do one of them. David is away on a business trip and this seemed like a good time to for it. I ended up using colored markers rather than crayons but it was still a lot of fun. That’s it at the top of this post.
So now I’m in the process of making my list of activities I enjoy. And I added a little twist. I’m doing this as a Pinterest board which I call “Joy in the Ordinary”. Feel free to check it out. I’ll be adding to it as time goes by. Here are just a few things on my happiness list:
- Getting lost in a book *
- Earl Grey tea in a pretty china teacup
- freshly ironed pillowcases
- line-dried sheets
- star gazing with David
- porch time
- foreign films
- listening to music
- playing the piano
- blowing bubbles
- crossword puzzles
- coloring (of course!)
What about you? Tell me a couple of things which you enjoy doing in the comments below.
*Update: A friend on Facebook pointed out that I had left off the obvious – reading! I had put it on my Pinterest board but failed to list it here. Of course, this list isn’t complete by any means, but I couldn’t leave off reading.
An abbreviated list:
Being in the Caribbean – sailing, SCUBA, drinking umbrella drinks on the beach, etc.
Flying. Kinda $$$ unfortunately.
Eating Creole food. Ok, most kinds of food.(grin)
Playing music with my friends.
Chatting with my kids.
Doing things with my wife.
Good list, Frank. Hopefully one of these days we will meet up in New Orleans and we can enjoy some Creole food together.
One day!
And, like somebody said on your FB post, I forgot READING. And movies. And TV. And…
Beautiful artwork, Dee! Isn't it just great to actively bring more joy and happiness into our lives by doing the things we've always loved 🙂
Absolutely. Thanks for the inspiration.
Great list! It's so easy to get caught up in the busy-ness of our lives that we forget what truly brings joy to our lives. A few things that make me happy:
Reading
Journaling
Napping
Time spent with my pets
Hiking
Puttering around the house, listening to my ipod.
By the way, I like coloring – and doodling. I'm not a crayon or marker person; I prefer good quality colored pencils.
I couldn't remember where I'd put my colored pencils the day I did this but I found them this morning. I had moved them and forget where. Ha!
If THIS is being a housewife, most of us would sign-up!
It is one small part of my daily life and I'm determined to make time for enjoyable activities.