Are you allowing yourself to experience joy and happiness lately? With all of the doom and gloom media, it’s easy to slip into patterns of feeling somber and heavy. Feeling guilty for laughing out loud or sharing a smile with a stranger. I made my first trip to buy groceries since New Zealand went into lockdown and the mood in the store was so sad! People were looking at one another like we were all diseased…it made me feel like spontaneously singing and dancing in the middle of the store to see if I could make people smile.
I get it. These are difficult times. The whole world feels like it got turned upside down overnight. But these are also beautiful times. Babies are being born. People are celebrating birthdays and anniversaries. New passions are being discovered. We are being given the space to slow down and reflect on what’s important in our daily lives. Perhaps we are finding more time to connect with friends and family, and making new friends online. Or taking more time to ourselves to read books and take baths.
These days have allowed me to reconnect to my love for music, spending countless hours at the piano, which is something I haven’t done since I was a young teen. I have a new appreciation for social media, which allows me to access all of my beautiful yoga teachers from around the globe. And let's not forget Zoom and FaceTime chats with friends and family.
For anyone reading this, you are still alive, and that alone is cause for celebration. One of the beautiful lessons I have been learning these past years is to cherish and embrace each moment, whether it be the seemingly simple moments like digging my feet in the sand at the beach, or the big accomplishments like crossing the finish line of a full marathon.
Now more than ever, it feels important to celebrate the simple moments like a smile shared with a stranger in the super market, or learning a new piano piece to share with a friend. Sharing these celebrations and joyful moments with one another gives us all permission to do the same. This is my commitment to express the happiness I feel in the simple moments, and creating the space for you to as well.