The Best Ways To Find And Prioritise Your Joy
Finding joy in the little moments brings us happiness and boosts our resilience to stress.
Life can be full of challenges and stressors. It’s important to find moments of joy amidst the chaos.
Prioritising acts of mindfulness make up health and wellbeing training exercises that improve our day-to-day. Whether it's practising gratitude, performing random acts of kindness, or simply taking time to identify what brings us joy, these strategies can help expand our stress capacity and increase our resilience, happiness, and all-round wellbeing.
Let’s explore why identifying joy is so important, and how to make it a priority in our daily lives.
Identifying What Brings Us Joy
Joyful experiences shift our focus away from problems and towards positive emotions, which can improve mood, increase energy levels, and enhance our wellbeing.
Identifying joy involves actively recognising the joys we already have in our lives, appreciating the positive aspects of our here and now we may be overlooking.
Whilst finding new joys is important to shake up routine and keep things fresh, identifying existing joy allows us to reframe what we already have and experience everyday happiness in the little things.
Take some time to think and reflect on something you already do that may feel routine, but actually brings you joy. It could be…
Exercise
Do you run, walk, play sports, work out, or attend a fitness class? These dopamine hits are a key example of wellbeing champion training that strengthens us mentally and physically.
Hobbies
Arts, crafts, DIY, instruments, gardening, and more at home or as part of a local community group are creative ways to fall back in love with your passions.
Spending time with others
A phone call with a parent, homemade dinner with a friend or partner, watching a show together. These little moments of connection we don’t think about are also little pockets of joy.
Your commute
The playlist or podcast you listen to, the book you read on your journey, warm up your mind and set your mood for the day. If you work from home, this could also include making a nutritious breakfast, exercising, or a morning walk.
Prioritising Joy Strategies
Once you’ve identified your joy, it’s important to prioritise it.
Whether it’s for your own mental health and wellbeing training, or ideas for mindfulness in the workplace, we’ve put together some joy strategies to practise gratitude and build your stress capacity.
Schedule time for joy
Pop it in your calendar or write out a to-do list that includes one small joyous moment. Doing things with intention is key to maximising joy and making it a priority.
Set boundaries
Say no to things that don’t bring you joy so that you can reduce stress, affirm your commitments, and make space for all you want to do.
Practise positive affirmations
Positive affirmations are a form of mental wellbeing training that involve repeating statements to ourselves, encouraging positive thinking to build confidence and practice gratitude. For example:
I am grateful I get to do... [X activity, see X person, work in X industry, live in X city]
I am filled with gratitude and joy
I choose to find happiness in all that I do
I am successful in my life
Create a joy list
Once you’ve identified what brings you joy, making note of little instances as they come up will help you to focus on the happiness the moments bring instead of forgetting them.
Keep a journal
Journaling is the act of writing down your thoughts and feelings. According to the NHS, regular journaling is a mindfulness technique for managing wellbeing and remembering the positive things you may otherwise dismiss, as well as an outlet for stress.
Random acts of kindness
Random acts of kindness are little unexpected surprises that keep the day-to-day joyful. Let someone go ahead of you in a queue, compliment a friend, hold open the door, offer to help someone with a task, buy a friend or loved one a coffee.
Even better, when these acts happen to you back, it helps you appreciate the little things.
Strengthening our Stress Capacity
If you want more reasons to strengthen your corporate mindfulness and wellbeing courses: one of the benefits of mindfulness in the workplace is that practising gratitude and prioritising joy increases our stress capacity.
Our stress capacity is the amount of stress we can handle before reaching breaking point. It's important to remember that building resilience is a process, and it takes time and effort. This includes making time for activities that bring us joy and setting boundaries.
When we intentionally make time for joy, we are more likely to engage in self-care and make healthier choices. This builds our stress capacity and resilience, helping us be more productive and happy in our personal and professional lives.
Practicing Gratitude
“Gratitude is a powerful catalyst for happiness.” Amy Collette
Practising gratitude and joy are important to maintain a healthy, well-rounded life. By actively seeking out and making time for things that bring us happiness, we create a buffer against the negative effects of stress. By prioritising joy, we can increase our resilience, happiness, and overall wellbeing.
Looking for health and wellbeing courses online or in-person? Mind It offers mindfulness and wellbeing courses that help encourage and implement these wellness habits. Building Personal Resilience To Stress focuses on resilience, strength, and confidence for stepping outside of your comfort zone, for instance. With built-in activities and discussion topics, the interactive workshop covers sources of stress, personal resilience levels, assertiveness, and taking action with a personal resilience plan.
Stress Management Workshop helps attendees to have a better understanding of stress, forming personal wellbeing strategies to identify stress factors, coping mechanisms, and have a holistic connection: mind and body. Check out our other wellbeing courses and services here.
For more guidance and information, get in touch with us at: info@mind-it.co.uk.
