When I was 25, I took a vacation with my dad, his wife Carol, and his childhood friends Mike and Gloria. We started in Nashville and roadtripped down to New Orleans, hitting up a few restaurants along the way that my dad wanted to try from Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives.
Upon our arrival in New Orleans and one too many mint juleps and hurricanes later, I ended up wandering away from our group–as I often unfortunately do when I’ve been drinking–and ended up on Canal Street. A homeless man told me I promised I’d buy him dinner. I offered to take him to McDonalds but he told me he wanted Popeyes. So I was in the middle of buying the guy his Popeyes when my dad called me, equal parts worried and angry, about where I wandered off to.
“I’m feeding the homeless so you really should be proud of me not mad at me,” I told him.
This wasn’t that important for the story, but I do think maybe it’s why my dad and Carol didn’t want to hang out with me the rest of the trip and I ended up spending most of my time with Mike and Gloria.
Mike and Gloria are people you don’t have to spend much time with to know they are good people. And there was a quality about Gloria especially that I couldn’t quite articulate back then that made her so infectiously positive to be around.
We could be sitting on a bench doing nothing and Gloria would comment on how nice the sun felt. Or when we went to get mufaletta sandwiches she would say “how good does this sandwich taste right now?”
And I remember thinking to myself how wonderful it must be to go through life noticing and appreciating all these small moments in the day that most of us probably take for granted.
It wasn’t until I read the book Microjoys by Cyndie Spiegel that I realized that these small moments had a name – and they were also what made Gloria so infectiously positive to be around. And maybe most importantly, I realized if I could notice and appreciate life’s microjoys too, I could probably be more like Gloria.
What Are Microjoys?
According to Spiegel,
Microjoys are a practice of uncovering joy and finding hope at any moment accessible to everyone, despite all else. When we hone the ability to look for them, they are always available. Microjoys are the hidden wisdom, long-ago memories, subtle treasures, and ordinary delights that surround us: A polka-dot glass on a thrift store shelf. A dear friend’s kindness at just the right time. The neighborhood spice shop. A beloved family tradition. The simple quietude of being in love. A cherished chai recipe.
Practicing Microjoys vs. Practicing Gratitude
You often hear people tout the benefits of practicing gratitude, but one thing I always struggled with–especially when going through a tough time–was that when we think of gratitude, we often think of it in terms of the larger things in life. Your family, your partner, a promotion, etc. So even when I was trying to practice gratitude daily, I sometimes struggled to come up with something new every day.
With microjoys, it feels a lot easier to find small, beautiful moments throughout the day to make note of. And I literally make note of them! I have a note in my Notes app on my phone called “Moments of Joy.” Sometimes I just include a line, sometimes a picture with it. And the best part of this note in my phone? When I’m having a bad day, it’s so nice to scroll through it and see this running list of all of the small beautiful things I’ve managed to capture. Here are some examples:
- Scratching Rogan’s back until he fell asleep.
- How it feels finishing a hard workout (especially when I didn’t feel like working out).
- When people compliment my cooking.
- Waking up before my alarm goes off.
- This:
- Slow Saturday mornings having coffee in bed.
- Jorts weather!
- Waking up early enough to see the sun come up.
- How excited Rogan was to get a package in the mail from my mom.
- The feeling of clean sheets on my feet.
- The smell of my linen spray.
- Cuddle puddles.
- Good poetry.
- Fresh flowers.
- Not letting rain ruin our adventures.
So What’s Life Changing about Noticing Microjoys?
I don’t remember where I first heard the saying “what you’re looking for is what you’re going to find,” but it’s stuck with me for 10+ years. If you’re looking for the negative in life, you’ll find it. But if you’re looking for the positive in life, you’ll find that, too. This is why two people can go through the same exact situation and feel completely different emotions about it.
Two people in my family work for the same hospital network. In the same week, one of them told me one of the perks of working there are the raises (typically around 3%) while the other complained to me how the company gave terrible raises (again–around 3%).
I feel like another example is rain. I don’t let myself get upset about the weather anymore. If I’m with someone that complains about the rain, my response is typically “That’s okay! I look good wet!” 😂
When you start looking for microjoys in life, the results are compounding. Your focus will shift to one of gratitude, beauty, and love. The more you feel these emotions now, the faster your external world will reflect them back to you.
Plus, if you’ve read my blog post on manifesting, you know one of the keys to manifesting is through being in a state of gratitude and abundance–you cannot manifest from a place of lack.
If you don’t believe in manifesting, there are still reasons to notice life’s microjoys. Recent studies show that optimists tend to outlive pessimists. The same correlation relates to minor illnesses like the common cold, as well.
Our tagline here at Bad Witch Blog is “refusing to settle for anything less than magic,” but the nice thing about noticing microjoys is finding little bits of magic every day. And when you add all of those little bits of magic up, you end up realizing you have the most magical life.
