Growing optimism
A good few years ago, pre covid, friends and I went to see the author & speaker Brene Brown. She spoke about her family, her research, told great stories, discussed her books but a point that really stood out for me was this; when you worry about the future you steal the joy from now, when you worry about the future you feel like you’re protecting yourself, that you’ll be somehow armed for the worse case scenario you are putting together in your head, like an emotional safeguard. But, Brene warned, all you are doing is robbing yourself from the joy from now.
I try to remember and practice this together with a fresh take: if I catch myself imagining the worse case scenario, come back to now. AND I’ll gift myself time to imagine the best case scenario too. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if …… (slide in a worry and flip it). Does this seem naive, given the state of our world? Perhaps. But my Yoga Teacher Mark used to say ‘trust everyone but always tie up your camel’. So yes, be practical but also remember to dream. There’s things that must be done that are boring and monotonous, we need to be responsible citizens of the earth, do our recycling, pay the bills, but also making dreams come true is worthwhile and growing optimism is a life skill worth creating.
Let’s grow optimism and find more joy. Here’s a few fun ideas:
Find a TV series that’s uplifting and interesting. Go to ABC iview and look for something fun and different, we loved Dog Park. SBS has great free to air shows too.
Buy the paper and look for fun things to do in your local neighbourhood or city.
Visit beautiful old buildings & soak up the feeling of sitting amongst beautiful architecture.
Visit Gumption Coffee in The Stand Arcade in Sydney City, have a coffee and you’ll have it served as a form of art, served in gorgeous teal/aqua coloured coffee cups & saucers. Or visit Rovollo and order a treat of a coffee called a Mont Blanc, delicious cool coffee with cream and orange.
Find some books at your local library that you loved growing up, Richard Scarry anyone? Dr Seuss? The Famous Five by Enid Blyton, also by Enid and one of my personal favourites: Noddy. Take a trip down memory lane and feel the feels of your childhood.
So what are things you already love to do that bring you a lot of joy and how can we max them out a bit?
Love coffee; try a new cafe. Buy a different brand of beans or grind. Mix things up. Take what you already love and gently seperate it out to explore different ways of enjoying that thing. Eg take that love of coffee & watch a movie about coffee on YouTube, there’s a whole bunch to choose from; ranging Cinematic 5 min movies to Indie Movies over an hour long. Love Eggs? There’s a short film called The Perfect Egg on YouTube. Go!
We can take what we love and grow more joy.
So I ask you:
dare to spread joy,
wear some colour,
welcome feelings of joy,
cook for friends,
dance in the kitchen,
feel the endorphins,
read an uplifting book and write out the words you love & stick them where youll see them.
Do what you can,
donate money,
pay for someones coffee anonymously,
buy someone flowers,
help in ways that feel true to you.
But claim your joy and then do the world a favour and spread it. Goodness knows we need to read, feel and see more joy.
🌼
