Hi Reader,

Have you seen anything that stopped you in your tracks lately?

In her book Keep Moving, poet Maggie Smith writes about a sunrise so arresting that she had to call out to her two kids to drop what they were doing and join her at the bathroom window to witness it.

A beauty emergency, she calls it: a moment of sudden, fleeting magic, or as Smith puts it, "one of those things you have to look at now, before it's gone."

My big beauty emergency this week was a giant flap of wing, a great blue heron I'd unsettled while walking on the trail that runs along the creek near my house. But it occurs to me that there are so many more beauty emergencies than we even realize. That delicious thing your child says that one day soon they will stop saying, without warning. The unseasonably warm day that is being spent in a conference room.

Perhaps life would be richer if we treated these things as the emergencies they are. The word emergency has roots in the Latin emergere — "to arise, bring to light." What else might arise from bringing urgency to the joy that won't wait?

Joyfully,
Ingrid

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One Thing

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"Joy is not made to be a crumb," writes Mary Oliver. But many of the joys we experience day to day are small and easily forgotten. Like when a loved one calls you just as you were thinking of them. Or when you're driving through the dark and see a house all aglow in the night. How do we expand these quotidian joys, to make them more than just crumbs?

I've found success lately with a practice I call "breathing into the joy." When I notice the feeling of joy, I close my eyes and imagine trying to expand the moment, as if I'm blowing up a balloon. Instead of letting the moment fly by, I feel the moment swell. I breathe into it a few more moments, letting it really sink in before I let it go.

When something good happens to you, breathe into the joy. Try it for a week, and notice how you feel at the end of each day.

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How To Make Resolutions Joyful

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My energy around resolutions this year can best be summed up with one emoji: 🙅🏼‍♀️. I don't know if it's my stage of life or something in the air but every time I think about goals or resolutions I feel all the life drain from my body.

I know I'm not alone, judging by the number of "New Year, Same Me" memes I'm seeing on social media. But while I'm all in for more self-acceptance and kindness, this doesn't feel like it either. I want growth, just not the gridded, quantified, sticker-charted, endlessly tracked version of it.

Can I grow in a way that doesn't involve streaks or goals? What does a resolution look like that isn't pass/fail?

Some things that have been inspiring my new year's ideation:

I like Rob Walker's characteristically un-resolution-y resolution ideas.

Thought this was a lovely take on using a single word as your intention for the year.

An astrological mad libs approach to the new year.

If you are going to make resolutions, one way to make them stickier — and more fun. (From the archives)

One thing I've been playing with is a kind of more / less framework. Something not for just a year, but a base to build from and continue to refine. Inspired in part by this:

As with holiday decorating, I'm letting my new year's ideas take their time. If I have some solid ideas by the end of January, I'll consider that a win! (Sharing in case that takes the pressure off.)

Lastly, I'd be remiss if I failed to mention our Joylist Planner, a free tool you can use to make sure there's more joy in your new year. If you don't have this one yet, you can get it here.

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Research Highlight

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Scientists placed a hamster wheel outside with a camera. Turns out that wild mice like to run on a wheel — not just for exercise, but for fun! So do frogs, rats, and slugs. It seems as though running on a wheel is just enjoyable, and given the chance, all kinds of wild animals will try to get in on the action.

This aligns with research showing that many different species of animals play: crows go "sledding" down roofs using coffee can lids, dolphins play catch with puffer fish as a ball, and fish jump over obstacles like twigs or turtles. A good reminder that the play drive is deep and innate!

​Source​

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Quote of the Week

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"Write breathe on your to-do list. Write blink. Write sit and eat. Then cross everything off. How satisfying! Give yourself credit for living."

— Maggie Smith, Keep Moving

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