During the Covid lockdown, I participated in a research project with several others that my friend and photographer-extraordinaire, Jessica Lin, was running. Each day she and I would text each other a short description of a joy, along with a photo if we had one. The research portion of the project lasted 3 months if I remember correctly. However, she and I found such value in this practice that we continued this exchange for the next 4+ years!

Every day we would extol the other mostly with photos of nature, food and people we love, as well as music videos, books and movie recommendations. This became our joy practice, and for me, it proved to be an invaluable part of my day. It quieted my inner rage-monkey (oh, how she rages!) which equipped me to respond more calmly to challenging circumstances. And I also benefited from all my joy-partner’s great experiences – joy is contagious, by the way!

Now Jessica is ramping up our joy practice! Rather than just noticing what’s been joyful, she has developed a 21-day challenge that focuses on becoming more purposeful in creating opportunities for even more joy each day!

Jessica and I, along with 6 other “joy-mongers”, will be sharing our experiences of fulfilling a daily activity prompt, aimed at making the joy happen! And each in our own way! Cool, right?!

I’ll be sharing mine at my Instagram page , along with the next day’s prompt so you can join in! I’ll also be giving a weekly recap here on the blog. Our joyous leader Jessica will also be blogging about her experiences and will have a newsletter with more joy info that can come right to your inbox. Sign up here.

We invite you to become a joy-monger along with us – if you want to get started, check out the activities list below!

Joy prompts for the next 5 days:

DAY 1 – Savour a favourite food – really savour it with all your senses

DAY 2 – Listen to a happy song or one with happy memories – a quick lift for your mood

DAY 3 – Walk in nature and notice 3 wondrous things – a mental-health booster

DAY 4 – Do 5-10 jumping jacks to fun music – kicks out the fight or flight hormones

DAY 5 – Spend 5 minutes smelling something delightful – grounds you in your senses

Easy, right?! You can even ramp up these activities if you wish!

Share with others – photos, daily exchanges, with us Joy-mongers on social media; use the hashtag #joymonger to see what the community is up to!