Little moments of joy
Molly Fairclough,
2nd Jun 2020
Tags:
Life
Blog
Depression
Gratitude
Hope
During this period of lockdown, it’s easy to not feel so great. It’s so easy to let the stress of everything going on in the world create a big, dark cloud that looms over your days, from the moment you wake up, to the moment you go to sleep.
That’s why little moments of joy are crucial.
Yes, a lot of things are bad right now, and there is good reason to be sad and angry and negative. But it’s important to remember that negative emotions and joyful ones are not mutually exclusive. It’s possible to be sad, whilst also finding moments of joy.
Give yourself permission to feel joy, especially at a time like this. Here are a few things that have been bringing me joy recently.
Movies and Electric Blankets
I don’t know what the climate is like where you are, but where I live it’s pretty cold. It was hot for a few days, a couple of weeks ago, but the sun has pretty much “peaced out” since then. So, one of my favourite things to do is to cocoon in my electric blanket and watch a movie every night.
A movie every night may seem excessive to some people, but for me, it’s the perfect way to wind down and escape into another world for a few hours.
A few movies that I’ve really enjoyed recently are:
- Juno (Jason Reitman)
- The Emperor’s New Groove (Mark Dindal)
- Ad Astra (James Gray)
- Mid 90s (Jonah Hill)
Dog-spotting on Daily Walks
Much like most people, I love dogs. Like, I really love them. I think they’re some of the most beautiful, pure, and sweet creatures on the planet; and every day, when I go for a walk, I am greeted by countless little furry friends.
This is genuinely the highlight of my day, and as weird as it may seem to their owners, I can’t help but smile at every dog I meet. I look a bit crazy just grinning at border collies for the entire walk, but it brings me joy, and that’s what matters.
Pom-pom phone case
This one is a little niche, but recently I saw a picture of a phone case that was covered in pom poms and, I don’t know why, but I needed it.
I was going to order one, but then I thought, how hard can it be to make my own? Surely it can’t be that hard? So, I bought some pom poms, found an old phone case, dug out the old hot glue gun, and started crafting.
Did I burn myself with hot glue? Yes, but only slightly. So overall, I’d say it was worth it.
The point is, doing weird crafts is actually really fun, and you’ll have the added bonus of a really funky phone case at the end of it.
These little moments of joy are great, but real joy comes from the presence of God. When we know God, joy is a constant in our lives, just as He himself is constant.
We can experience God's perfect joy forever.
There is nothing that we can do or say that will remove us from the presence of God, and when we give our lives to Him, we can experience his perfect joy forever.
‘So be truly glad. There is wonderful joy ahead, even though you must endure many trials for a little while. These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold—though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honour on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world.’ (1 Peter 1:6-7 in the Bible).
