What Made You Smile Today?

Summary

The article advocates for the practice of reflecting on a single positive event each day to enhance gratitude and happiness.

Abstract

In a fast-paced world where individuals often overlook the present, the article emphasizes the importance of mindfulness and gratitude. It suggests that focusing on one thing that brought joy each day, rather than a general list of things one is grateful for, can lead to a more profound appreciation of life's daily miracles. This exercise is presented as a way to counteract the feeling of numbness and lack of joy that can come from a monotonous routine. By actively recalling and savoring a specific moment of happiness before bed, individuals can reframe their perspective on the day and cultivate a more joyful mindset.

Opinions

The author acknowledges the challenge of living in a constantly busy society that often leads to stress and forgetting to appreciate the small joys in life.
The article criticizes the repetitive nature of general gratitude lists and suggests that they may not effectively foster daily joy and mindfulness.
The author shares a personal experience of feeling unhappy and stressed, indicating a transformation after adopting the new reflective practice.
The practice of choosing one thing that made you smile is presented as a superior alternative to traditional gratitude exercises, promoting a deeper level of reflection and appreciation.
The author believes that this reflective exercise can help individuals become more conscious of joyful moments as they occur, leading to increased happiness over time.
The article encourages readers to adopt this practice, suggesting it as a personal game of scavenger hunt with happiness as the ultimate prize.

& Why You Should Think About It More

We live in a society where we constantly have to be in a GO! mode. Coffee To-Go, talking on the phone with someone while driving, having lunch with a friend, while texting some other friend at the same time. It’s easy to get lost. It’s easy to forget to stop and smell the flowers. It’s easy to fall into a rut.

When did we forget to live each day, to appreciate small things? When did we forget we only have one life? And when did we forget that being alive is a miracle in itself? It’s no wonder many of us feel numb or feel the lack of joy.

I know, I was the same. (And still am, sometimes.)

I realised I was going to bed stressed almost every night. Rethinking over and over again what happened that day and worried about what tomorrow would bring. Worried about the yet non-existent everyday life somewhere years away in the future. It came to a point, where I would catch myself not looking forward to pretty much anything, nothing would make me happy anymore. I didn’t like myself like that, because it’s not who I am, and I didn’t want to go down the road of only seeing the world as grey.

So what was for me to do?

I watched many YouTube videos on mindfulness, listened to podcasts on gratitude, and pretty much went through loads of self-help articles here on Medium. Don’t get me wrong, they were insightful, they helped me immensely in other areas, but not where and in the way I needed them to help me. Somewhere along the way, I came across this one exercise of listing five things you’re grateful for before going to bed. It’s all super and well, but sometime during my 6th or 7th evening I realized my list was getting repetitive. I would always list down the same things — my family, my dog, my friends, my home — you get the picture. It was general, it wasn’t about finding joy in the now, in each day.

So, I decided to focus on one thing only, instead of five. That way, I would have to think about that specific thing more (prioritize the listed things and select only one that made me the happiest). And I would have to reflect on my daily experiences, instead of being grateful for things in my life in general.

And somehow, six months later, this is what I still do now.

Here is why it works, what I learned, and why it would be beneficial for you, too.

The task is simple. At the end of the day, before going to bed, during your bath, during your dinner, whenever you have time for yourself and your thoughts, reflect on your day.

Think of something that happened that had a positive effect on you.

No matter how small or big. (The task is very similar to “the highlight of your day,” if you’re familiar with it). What happened that brought you joy? What thing made you smile? It can be something small, it doesn’t have to be this huge, life-changing thing.

For example, my favourite part of my mornings is freshly made authentic coffee. I love its smell, its taste and all that it represents. It gives me 20 minutes for myself, for my book, for thinking and for being in the moment. Good coffee time can significantly improve my mood. But when I go about my day, I can quickly forget about that special moment. And when I go to bed in the evening, no matter how amazing that cup of coffee was, I have already lost sight of it and all the other good things that happened, and can only focus on the not so good ones.

That is why I now purposefully search for the one amazing thing that brought me the most joy in the past 16 hours. The way I go about it is I usually start with my morning coffee and then retrace my day, going step by step over the things that happened and that made me smile. I search if anything, no matter how small and for how long, brought me even more joy (than coffee, of course). And once I’m done, I realise my day wasn’t so bad after all.

Think about it as it being your personal game of scavenger hunt. But instead of the materialistic prize at the end, you get something even better — a sense of happiness in your life. And the best part:

the more you do it, the more conscious you get of these small joyful things every time they happen, in the moment, and consequently consciously enjoying them even more.

So, all that remains is this question:

What Made You Smile Today?

& Why You Should Think About It More

What made you smile today?