"Life's too short, do what you love."
Yeah, sure, easier said than done. While most of us believe the above to be ideal, sadly the realities of life don't always allow that. Particularly, for many, what they do on a daily basis is required to keep them alive. While there are probably rare cases of people doing what they love, instead of what they have to, in impoverished places, I think the above is more of a 1st World adage.
In the absence of actually doing what you love all the time, I think one can still strive to at least incorporate those things in daily life. I for one always do, and those things make me very happy. If you saw my previous post, you'd know that practicing active happiness is essential here.
POSITIVE COFFEE
I'm a coffee lover. I drink coffee everyday. Most of my coffee mugs have a positive message on them. On the surface, it seems a little pointless and even odd to some observers, but on the subconscious level it's doing a world of good.
Many of my happy friends have affirmations stuck up all over the place - written in bright colours on sticky notes, scribbled on white boards and displayed in photo frames.
There are also a lot of studies that have been done with colour science and psychology - which colours make us feel the way we do. You might not know it, but the colour of your room may be contributing to you feeling down. Blue is a bad choice for a room in most cases, for instance. Personally I like browns and beiges.
WINDOW OF HOPE
Lucky me, I have a pair of large bright windows with a direct view north. Even though I have buildings obstructing my view, I still get quite a bit of sunlight coming in when the sun is out.
Is there anything that gives more hope in this world than a sunrise?
Longer days are coming. I really can't wait for Spring time when the sun starts sitting in the sky for the majority of the day. The early morning sun is like spring. It's the rebirth after the death.
RETRO THINGS
I love old things - vintage cameras, cassette players and paper. I love the smell of paper magazines when you first open them. It reminds me of my childhood when I occasionally got video game magazines which I cherished. I'd read the entire magazine a hundred times over. Those were the days before information overload when we spent more than 3 minutes consuming content.
My first Apple product, the iPod Nano is one of my favourite gadgets right now. When I bought it, I still used to be very selective about content, and I spent time really consuming it. It had a limited memory, so I could only fit a given number of albums on it. Limits are good in this case, they create value.
SOLITUDE BY WATER
If you live in a big noisy city like I do, you'd understand. Even as I type this, there are delinquent youth treating our parking lot like a race track. Enemies of tranquility.
'Tis why sometimes I just need to get away from it all. Luckily, again, I don't have to go too far to find said peace and quiet. I have access to quite a few spots where things fall silent enough. Mostly the ambience of the city can still be heard, but as white noise.
I often enjoy a quiet place next to water. We have many lakes and ponds around the city that are secluded enough. You just have to know where they are.
QUESTION:
What small things make you happy?
Peace and Love ✌🏿
Adé
All copy and photos are original content by me.
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