Lately, I have found myself feeling very uninspired and struggling to make it through my last quarter of college. I am stuck between being ready to graduate and feeling scared to leave a life I have known for the past four years. These two opposing thoughts have caused me to struggle and feel overwhelmed with the thought of my life-changing in such a short amount of time. I often find myself getting lost in thought, or becoming paralyzed with fear about what the future holds. I was on Facetime with my mom the other day, telling her about these thoughts and the unease I was feeling about my life. Then in the middle of my sentence, she interrupted me to show me how my cat was lying in a cute position in the sun. It immediately made me stop my landslide of thoughts, and laugh at how cute he was. After that moment, I realized that all the things that I thought were the biggest problems in my life, were actually small compared to all the little, good, things that I get to experience every day. I decided to make a list of the little things that bring joy to my day-to-day life, and I wanted to share it with you.
Sunshine
With the start of Spring, we begin to get these beautiful days of sunshine. I personally have found a love for starting every morning by opening my blinds and window to let the sunshine and fresh air in. I also try to spend 20-30 minutes a day outside sitting in the sun. Enjoying the sunshine can seem like such an afterthought, but really trying to be intentional with appreciating the sun has made me find so much more joy in it than I did before.
Birdwatching
Last summer I became obsessed with birdwatching, and puzzling, I called it my “Old Lady Summer.” I would sit in front of the picture window in my house with binoculars and watch the birds as they came onto the deck. I would put food out there every morning, and every morning a wide variety of birds would show up. I had a bird book, that was my great grandmothers, and I would try to find the name of every bird I saw. I ended up developing a new admiration for birds. We see them every day, but when you actually stop to appreciate their beauty and their way of life, you realize how amazing they actually are.
Nighttime Routines
One of my favorite times of the day is when I am ready to turn in for the night and start my nighttime routine. My routine starts with a warm shower to wash off the stressors of the day. This is followed up by putting on some sort of good-smelling lotion and comfy pajamas. Then I do my nighttime skincare routine and crawl into bed with my heating pad on. After I am all set up in bed, I watch an episode or two of my current favorite show and then go to sleep. All of these things might seem little and just another thing to have to do, but I have found such a calming, relaxing, simple joy from each step of this night routine.
Pets
Back in my hometown, I have one cat and one dog. They are like my children, and I miss them every day while I am at school. However, I have found that this time apart from them has led me to appreciate them even more than I already did. There is something so simple about animals that we can learn from. They sleep when they are tired, stretch when they need to stretch, gravitate towards the sun and soak it up whenever they can, they do what they want, and what they need, and there is so much simplicity and joy in that. Just watching them exist is so comforting, and not to mention they look absolutely adorable doing anything.
Those are all the little things that I can fit into one article. There are so many more that I could explain like having a fun drink, laughing with friends, hugging your mom after not seeing her for a while, seeing someone practice human kindness, turning in an assignment you worked hard on, and so much more. I think it is so easy to get caught up in all the bad, scary things that go on in our lives. If you start to feel overwhelmed with the bad in your life, I hope you can try looking for the simple things in life that bring you joy. When you start to look around and look for these things, you realize all these little joys can start to outweigh the bad.