The Joy List 'Exercise'

Pain can be a real joy sucker. It can make it so that you can’t do the activities that once brought you joy and can make it difficulty to connect with others in a way that used to bring you joy.

When those old ways of finding joy aren’t working, it is important to find new ways.

Finding ways to experience joy and actually allowing yourself to experience joy can help to change your pain and even lessen the pain you’re experiencing.

Because joy is such a powerful antidote for pain, it has become one of my favorite home ‘exercises’ to prescribe my clients.

Here’s how you do it:

1.     Find a piece of paper and pen

2.     At the top of your page, write ‘My Joy List’

3.     Write down 1-2 things – people, places, activities, sights, sounds, scents, foods, etc. – that bring you joy. (I usually help my clients come up with these first few just to get the ball rolling).

4.     Each day try to add one more ‘joy’ to your list for 1 week (or more if you’d like)

5.     After that first week, each day try to do recognize and let yourself experience one joy and if it’s not on your list, add it!

6.     When you’re having a yuck kind of day or part of your day, go to your Joy List, pick one ‘joy’ and try it out.

Joy helps to release feel good neurotransmitters in your brain that help to ease your whole nervous system, bringing your body into a better state for healing.

This ‘exercise’ also takes advantage of what I like to call the Blue Car Phenomenon. This is when you buy a blue car and suddenly everywhere you look there are blue cars. It’s not that the amount of blue cars aka joys changed in the moment you purchased your car aka started your list, but your attention did. By buying the car or starting the list, you shift your focus and start to see more blue cars or more things in the world that bring you joy.

So bring on the joy!

If you’re having trouble getting started, here are a few ideas from my Joy List:

• looking at my plants

• being in my garden in the spring/summer

• watching those first few snow flakes fall in the winter

• going outside at night during a snowfall and embracing just how quiet it can be in the world

• walking with a friend

• snuggling with my husband

• a big hug

• having deep connections with strangers

• eating a grilled cheese

• petting my cat

• having a clean kitchen table

• a hot cup of tea on a dreary day

• a hot shower