The More Joy Challenge

I read a book recently; a book that has stayed with me in that delicious way that good books sometimes do.

I was looking for some queer books at the library and grabbed this one when I saw the word gay on the cover in big bold letters. Except that when I looked a little closer, Gay was the last name of the writer (Ross Gay) and not the topic of the book.

I took the book out anyways, because, hey, it’s the library and they let you peruse any book you want for free. Plus, the book was called The Book of (More) Delights and more delights sounded good to me.

Now it's a few weeks later and I’m still thinking about how we could all use more delights in our lives. Actually, that’s not quite right, I’m more still thinking about how we could all benefit from spending more time noticing the delights that are happening in our lives every single day.

There’s a lot of crap happening in the world. A lot of unstable (mostly white) men who have been given way more power than they’re equipped to handle, and it sucks (maybe a colossal understatement).

But, that doesn’t mean that everything has to sucks. It doesn’t mean that we should allow the difficult and tragic things we can’t control to steal all the joy from our lives.

So, here, I’m creating the More Joy Challenge. I’m challenging each of you to tune in throughout your day and really notice the little moments that make you smile. Now, instead of smiling and moving on with your day. Lean in and savour those moments, let yourself be immersed in feeling that little bit of awesome.

It can be the moment when you cut into that mango (or avocado) and realize that it’s perfectly ripe. It can be the moment when the clouds part and you feel that spring sunshine calling everything back to life. It can be that stranger who chased you down for a block to return the glove you’d dropped.

It really doesn’t matter what the moment is, what matters is that it makes you smile. What matters is that you allow it to fill you up just a little and then, most importantly, you tell someone about it.

Tell someone about it because it allows you to relive the moment. Tell someone about it, because it might make them smile. Tell someone about it because it’s a way to get your brain to start to take notice.

We're all programmed to notice the negative, but that doesn’t mean we have to stick with that program. Our brains are elastic and changing all the time, they can be trained to soak up more joy.

Noticing the wonder and treasures that hide throughout your day might just lead you to have more joy, to spread more joy and to ultimately make the world a better place one little magic moment at a time.

The More Joy Challenge, what have you got to lose?