A couple months ago, I was talking to a friend about random things that made us happy. I’m not sure how it came up, but we went back and forth for a while listing out the things that brought us joy. Funny enough, the things we thought of weren’t big–on the contrary, they were very small, ordinary things that made us happy for no apparent reason. We began labeling them “simple joys,” and whenever we stumbled upon another one, we added it to our mental lists (or in my case, a Note on my phone because I can’t remember anything if I don’t write it down. Fact.) Since then, I’ve asked a number of people what their “simple joys” are just because it’s fun/a good conversation starter, plus I find you can learn a lot about a person from the small things that bring them joy.
Sim•ple joy /ˈsimpəl/ / joi/, noun: an object, feeling or experience that intrinsically brings you happiness, its mere existence in your life creates joy without ties to consequence or additional outcomes
^like high buns & sunsets
Simple Joys are not overarching, “big picture” items that bring you happiness. For example, hanging out with friends/significant other, graduating from college, landing your dream job will obviously make you very happy, but they’re not categorized as Simple Joys. Simple Joys are the familiar, mundane and very specific things that you experience in your everyday life. They don’t take years to achieve or require a certain set of circumstances to work out–they just exist and bring you happiness.
Ampersand 