Hello. Today I want to talk about Creating Happy Lists.
The world is a strange place right now isn’t it? (If you’re reading this much later – I’m writing this post in March 2020 and we are in the midst of the COVID-19 Pandemic).
Did you know that today is the International Day of Happiness? So let’s try and find some things that make us happy that we can celebrate during these tough times. (You can do these activities at any time!)
I am going to share some prompts with you to help you create your own list. (We are mirroring these prompts today at home.)
Creating Happy Lists
Brainstorming Happy
First of all – let’s come up with some ideas. I like to do this on lots of post it notes but you can easily type out ideas or jot them down on some paper. Answer the following questions…
What does happiness:
- LOOK like? (examples – my dog being happy to see me when I get home, a vase of pretty flowers)
- SOUND like? (examples – listening to my favourite songs, birdsong)
- FEEL like? (examples – cuddles, sunshine on my face after Winter)
You could also hit all of the five senses and think about TASTE and SMELL as well.
Let’s use that to come up with a list of 20 Happy Things.
Don’t worry about ordering your ideas and even if they seem silly write them down!
If you need some more I have extra prompts here including things like books, TV, seasons, hobbies etc.
Once you’ve got to 20 – feel free to keep going! I originally wrote a list of 100 happy things and then a few years later I wrote another 100! I’ve also been collating as many happy lists as I can find over on Pinterest so pop over for even more ideas (and do let me know if you publish your list somewhere so I can add it to the Pinterest board).
Then display your list. You could type it up in your favourite fonts and colours and print it out/set it as your wallpaper on a screen. Or draw it with doodles and use your favourite art supplies to make it a masterpiece!
Extra Happy Activities
- Think of the songs that make you happy and that make you want to dance – and put together a playlist together
- Create a happiness mood board – you can do this the old fashioned way and cut out photos and words to make a collage. Or make a virtual one using a programme like Canva
- Come up with a list of accessible (i.e. you can do now if you choose) activities that make you happy. And if you’re currently in isolation or social distancing – come up with things you can still do during this time. I’m hoping to share some ideas for this soon.
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This may seem like a fluffy idea when there’s so much happening right now – I get that. But I know that spending some time thinking about happy things rather than constantly refreshing the news app on my phone is helping me. And I hope this helps you too.
Take care.
