The beginning of the year often comes with a lot of excitement and energy – hopes for a new, fresh start. But that often fades quickly, and we find that we’re staring in the face of several more months of winter, with no major holidays or breaks to look forward to. In these dreary months, it can be enticing to settle in and embrace the bleakness and just wait for spring to arrive. But what if we took this time to be intentional about seeking out joy?
Ingrid Fetell Lee, author of “Joyful: The Surprising Power of Ordinary Things to Create Extraordinary Happiness” and recent speaker at our 2021 Changing the Odds conference, has identified ten “aesthetics of joy”—qualities that have a connection between the feeling of joy and the tangible world around us. Here are the ten qualities she highlights in her work:
Here is a quick summary of her ten, according to her book Joyful:
Energy: vibrant color and light
Abundance: lushness, multiplicity and variety
Freedom: nature, wildness, and open space
Harmony: balance, symmetry and flow
Play: circles, spheres and bubbly forms
Surprise: contrast and whimsy
Transcendence: elevation and lightness
Magic: invisible forces and illusions
Celebration: synchrony, sparkle, and bursting shapes
Renewal: blossoming, expansion, and curves
We love Ingrid’s work in identifying what brings us joy – an often difficult to pinpoint emotion. With her extensive research to guide us, here is a non-exhaustive list of ways to find joy in these dreary months of winter. We’ve organized our list by activities (joyful things to do) and physical spaces (making our home, office, etc. more joyful).
Ideas to bring more joy to your spaces:
Paint a wall a bright color
Hang up a colorful piece of art
Add a lamp or two
Organize your books in rainbow order
Replace something grey/black/white with something colorful (chair, pen holder, coffee cup)
Paint or hang polka dots on a small section of wall
Hang up a collection of kids artwork, hand drawn doodles or postcards
Arrange your setup so you can see out of a window if possible
Hang up pictures of nature, especially places that are meaningful to you
Clear out clutter to make space feel more open
Get an indoor plant and keep it near your workspace
Tidy up your entryway
Put a small toy in your workspace
Hang a prism or tiny disco ball
Ideas to bring more joy to your activities:
Wander through a specialty shop or farmers market
Get outside, the more open space the better
Identify one thing that bugs you and fix it: something you bump into every day, a room in need of a trashcan, storing cleaning supplies too far away
Play a board game, peekaboo or tag with a child
Pick a new hobby – painting, juggling, baking, needlepoint
Have a board game night with friends (in person or virtual)
Blow bubbles
Send someone a handwritten note
Sign up for something new, like an art or dance class
Try a new food, fruit or veggie or a new restaurant
Blast your favorite playlist
Play background music during mundane tasks
Dance (like no one is watching!)
Wear something colorful
What else brings you joy? Write it down so you don't forget to revisit it!
For more ideas on joy, be sure to visit The Aesthetics of Joy site.
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