The importance of small pleasures

The importance of small pleasures

Hi everyone

Soooo, a while back I started feeding the birds in the back garden. I go out first thing in the morning and scatter birdseed as a daily ritual. Almost immediately, a whole range of birds swoop in and get to work eating the seeds. There’s now an impressive array of birdlife flying in every morning to stock up on breakfast, and they drop in throughout the day till early evening – sparrows, finches, starlings, blackbirds and many more.

When working on the chaise lounge right by the glass doors, opened to take advantage of the beautiful weather in Wellington recently, I can watch the birds pecking at the seeds for ages. It’s relaxing and makes me happy, and is a positive, uplifting routine first thing in the morning. I know yoga would also be a great early morning routine, but the downward dog doesn’t bring me as much pleasure as some happy, contented birds.

Some of the birds even bring their wee babies down to the garden and feed them directly, accompanied by a cacophony of loud tweeting and ruffling of feathers.

I’m reliably informed by well-meaning friends, with a certain knowing look in their eyes, that this is what old people start to do….so there’s that issue. To validate their helpful assessment, I’ve even started talking ad nauseum about the birds to these mates, as glazed looks descend over their eyes. I swear one friend, while visiting, accidently on purpose dropped a bowl of fruit she was eating. I was going into detail about the way the baby birds vibrate their feathers to attract the parents’ attention and oops, there went the fruit all over the carpet.

Sigmund Freud believed there was no such thing as an accident, so I’m suspicious of her unconscious big time. However, it did shut down all further bird discussion as we dropped down on hands and knees to pick up the fruit – so well-played to my friend’s subconscious!

The reason I tell this story is to share how important small positive routines can be to uplifting our lives. When there is too much doom and gloom going around, the addition of tiny but affirming habits daily can bolster our wellbeing and contribute to the building blocks of a pretty cool life. We don’t need huge things to make us content but small, uplifting habits consistently applied can have an incremental result that is just as effective for a positive mindset.

What are your daily feelgood habits?

I wish you good thinking and happy habits

Janine x