Episode 29: Finding Joy in Small Moments
- Tina Boogren
- 3 hours ago
- 6 min read
Description: Joy doesn’t have to be big or rare to matter. In this episode, Tina explores how small, everyday moments of joy can help restore energy, shift your mood, and support your overall wellness. Through simple reflections and gentle invitations, this episode encourages you to notice what brings you joy and intentionally make space for more of it in your daily life.
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Transcription: Hi, and welcome to Everyday Wellness with Dr. Tina H. Boogren. I am your host, Dr. Boogren. I'm so happy that you are here and I chose that word happy because that's going to lead us right into this week's invitation. But before we get there, um, I'm really getting into this, like, let's kind of pause and center ourselves before we get into the episode. This is, it's good for me as I record these and I hope that it helps you as well as we go through our busy days. So let's just kind of, whew, pause together and whether maybe you’re driving in the car or you're on a walk or ah, you're listening to me while you are enjoying your morning coffee or tea. Let's just kind of bring ourselves fully to this moment and just take a really nice deep breath in through your nose and out your mouth. Do it now.
Ah, feels so good and grounding. We've been talking a lot about our nervous system and kind of making sure that we are grounded. And again, I've just discovered when I slow down and intentionally pause and take that deep breath, it just calms my entire nervous system down and feels so good.
Okay, so let's get back to when I said that I was happy that you are here, I am because what we're going to talk about this week is joy. Oh, I love joy. In fact, when I say joy, I think of Inside Out and Amy Poehler, who is one of my favorite human beings on the planet and so I love everything about this. What we're going to be talking about here is it's really, really simple and surprisingly powerful, and it's joy.
Now, this doesn't have to be these like big once in a while, kind of huge, huge moments that show up on milestone days or vacations or celebrations. No, we're going to talk about, of course, on the Everyday Wellness podcast, we're going to talk about the everyday kind of joy. I want you to get your head around this by starting to think about the small moments that lift you up. Think about those moments that kind of soften the edges of a hard day. Think about those moments that remind you what it feels like to be alive in a really human way.
Joy is so essential in terms of our wellness. What we know is that when we experience joy, even if it's just this teeny tiny little, itty bitty moment, our bodies actually respond. Our nervous system settles. Our mood shifts. Our thinking actually starts to open up, and we feel more connected- ding, ding, ding- social wellness, to ourselves and to the people around us. To put this in a, in a different way, I want you to remember that joy helps restore energy. Let me say that again because it's so powerful. Joy helps restore energy.
It reminds our brains that life isn't just stress, deadlines, responsibilities, and that long, long list of things that we need to get done. Joy reminds us that goodness still exists in the middle of all the hard stuff, in the middle of that stress, in the middle of those deadlines and those responsibilities and that to-do list. And really, here's what I want us to hold onto. The beautiful thing about joy is it doesn't, again, have to be big. It can be found in those teeny, tiny little moments, those small places.
Let's think about what might bring us joy. So a favorite song that comes on the radio. Do we even know what radios are? Favorite song that comes on your Spotify, right, at an unexpected time that is just so perfect. I love my first sip of coffee in the morning. It brings me such joy. I love, love, love when I hear the ding of a text message and it's just a little note from someone that I love. I get such joy when I complete something, like complete a project, especially if it's something that really meant a lot to me. I get immense joy from reading. Again, I am really working on my reading muscle, staying engaged in a book and not getting distracted, and that brings me so much joy. Gosh, laughter, I love to laugh. I love to laugh with other people. I love to laugh at myself. I love laughter.
So today I'm going to offer you, in this spirit of joy, I want to offer you a few kind of just gentle invitations around joy. So, what I want you to do is I want you to take a moment and I want you to think about three to five things that never fail to lift you up and to bring you joy. Kind of like that list that I just said. You may have similar things on your list. You may have totally different things. We are all unique and different, and we know different things, different strategies work for different people, and that includes joy. So again, I want you to just take a moment, think about three to five things that never fail to lift you up and bring you joy. For me, having a list in my journal is important, but maybe you're just going to think through this or start a little note on your phone. Let me give you some more ideas of things that might bring you joy.
Maybe it's walking your dog. Maybe it's stepping outside and feeling fresh air. Maybe it's music. Maybe it's talking to a particular friend or person or coworker. Maybe it's a creative activity; writing, painting, cooking, gardening. Maybe it's movement; stretching, walking, dancing in your kitchen or your classroom or your office, or wherever. Whatever it is, I just want you to pause for a moment and name those things. And the reason this matters is because when things are really hard, we kind of forget what brings us joy and our brain just kind of hijacks it. And so if we have an actual list, especially those small things, we can purposely reach for those.
The next thing I want you to do is I want you to reflect on just two or three simple pleasures that you could easily add to your daily routine. Small things, things like taking five minutes in the morning to sit quietly with your coffee or your tea instead of rushing immediately into the day. Things we've talked about before. Things like stepping outside for a short walk at lunch. Maybe it's starting a ritual of lighting a candle at the end of your day when you get home. Maybe it's reading a few pages of your book before you go to bed. Maybe it's calling someone you love during your commute. When we kind of purposely seek out those two to three simple pleasures that we could add to our day, that is adding more joy to our life and it can change the way our entire day feels.
And then something else that I want you to think about is, I want you to consider this question. If you had an extra day to do only things that bring you joy, what would that day look like? If you had an extra day to do only things that brought you joy, what would that day look like? Ooh, imagine it, write it down, and then do it. Do it. Where would you go? What would you do? Who would you spend your time with? Would you travel somewhere? Would you read all day? Would you create something? Would you move your body? Would you cook something or bake something? Would you laugh with the people you love? Would you spend the day alone? Would you spend the day with others? Just imagining that can bring us joy and then. Do, do it. Do the whole thing or do at least parts of it.
So that's what I want you to think about this week is joy. It doesn't have to be big. In fact, those small moments can just really be the things that change our entire life. And I'm going to do the same. So let's just cultivate more joy on a daily basis. Let's be really purposeful in identifying what brings us joy, and then think about how we can add joy to our daily lives and keep that joy list on hand and return to it again and again and again.
I'm cheering so hard for you. I hope you have a week that is filled with joy. I hope you feel my hand on your back as you move through this week and know that I am cheering so hard for you. As always, so grateful to Adrienne, Solution Tree, and Marzano Resources and to you this incredible, badass wellness squad. Uh, I'm so happy you're here. I love us so much. This group brings me so much joy. Make it a great week. I love you.
If this episode resonated with you, find more emotional wellness episodes here.