Daily Moments of Delight

After a long day of work, what are your three most dominant emotions? Would you like to experience more pleasant emotions in your day? It is available to you – no matter how challenging your day is. You just have to look for the moments, even only for a moment of delight.

Each day is an adventure. Sometimes we may feel as if we are simply going through the motions. Sometimes we forget to feel because we are not staying in the present. We are busy rushing to go to the next meeting, to see the next patient, to get to the next task – that our brains are flooded with to-do lists, must-do tasks, and not-so-favorite commitments. It is easy to feel stressed and overwhelmed.

Think of something that brings you delight. For me, it is a day on the beach with my family. The sky is blue with no clouds. The sun is warm, just at the perfect temperature, not too cold and not too hot. There is a light breeze. It is a beach with few other people, as if I have my own private beach. The sand is warm to touch, is fine and soft. It is quiet, other than the ocean making small waves at the shoreline. It is low tide. My children are looking for little bait fish, hermit crabs and clams. My husband and I are sitting on a beach towel, marveling at the wonders of creation. That feeling of great joy is weightless, as if I am floating on a cloud. It is light-hearted to me. There is no stress, no worry. There is the feeling of “this is where I am supposed to be”.

What brings you delight?

Even though I am not at the beach every day, it is possible to recreate that moment of delight on a daily basis. It is a way to increase joy in your life. It is also a way to expand your capacity to make joy more available to you.

Look for one moment in your day that brings you delight. It may feel awkward at first. You may have a difficult time finding even that one moment and that is okay. The more you do this exercise, the easier you will find those moments. It may be something small. It may be a sentence that your colleague said. It may be the color of the sky. It may be a particular patient encounter.

Write it down. Share it with someone. When you write it down and share the details with someone, you get to experience the great joy (again) and amplify it. Through this practice, you get to be more present. Before you know it, you will be finding moments of delight throughout your day. This further enhances being present, feeling your feelings, and finding even more favorite moments.

Overall, you get to be more light-hearted and less stressed, even when you are going through hard times. You also get to be more efficient at work because you are utilizing more pleasant emotions as your fuel.

I invite you to do this exercise with me. Find a moment of delight every day and share it with someone. You invite the other person to share with you too. Your routine will become more flavorful. It will be easier to get through the day because you are finding more joy in your life.