Put on your “JOY glasses” with Bubblz

Welcome to the fourth “Jolt of Joy” newsletter. Last week, Bubblz asked you to cheer yourself on! We hope that you enJOYed being your own cheerleader. Rah! Rah! This is Bubblz’ last week in the spotlight. Artistlz will be featured in October and has already started sharing his creativity by launching a new 3″ vinyl sticker collection available in the Joyblz! shop.

Joy-full Activity for this week

Your joy-full activity for this week is to go on a treasure hunt for JOY and there’s no map since JOY can be found everywhere. So, put on your “JOY glasses” with Bubblz and start looking for everything that brings you JOY!

In honor of Bubblz’ last appearance, I couldn’t resist wearing some brightly colored pom-poms on my head! I hope seeing the photo above made you smile and laugh. But why am I wearing large purple “JOY glasses”? What exactly are “JOY glasses”, you may ask? Continue reading to find out …

Put on your “JOY glasses” with Bubblz

“JOY glasses” are to be worn as you go about your day to look for all the things that bring you JOY! You don’t need to actually wear a pair of glasses; it’s just a reminder to seek out the JOY in life. Bubblz and I enjoy seeing the flowering potato tree in my backyard, with its beautiful purple flowers. It’s one of the things that brings us so much JOY.

How to Find Joy

I recently watched a TED talk, “Where Joy Hides and How to Find It”, by Ingrid Fetell Lee, a designer and the author of The Aesthetics of Joy, that inspired me to “notice” all the little things that bring me JOY. More than a decade ago, she started asking complete strangers about the tangible things that brought them joy. To her surprise, some answers came up repeatedly, including cherry blossoms, ice cream with sprinkles, rainbows, tree houses, hot air balloons, googly eyes, bubbles, and swimming pools.

Lee explains that joy may be elusive but can be found through physical attributes like bright colors or fun patterns, what she calls the “aesthetics of joy”. “ It was immediately clear that there was something about bright colors,” Lee says. “It seemed like they translated to joy.” That’s why Lee believes adding bursts of color is one of the most effective ways to spark joy in your home!

Creating a “JOY” Wall

My friend Kylie was also inspired by this TED talk and wanted to add more elements of joy to her home. She created a “JOY” wall with multi-colored dots, featuring different uplifting messages, and just seeing these made her smile. She told me that she wrote some of Bubblz’ be your own cheerleader sayings, such as, “I am amazing” and “I can do this!” on the dots to cheer herself on. Bubblz was jumping for JOY when she heard that! You can see a photo below of Kylie’s amazing joy-full, color-full “JOY” wall that she was happy to have me share.

Joy is Everywhere

“Joy isn’t some superfluous extra,” Fetell Lee says:

“It’s directly connected to our fundamental instinct for survival. On the most basic level, the drive toward joy is the drive toward life.”

Deep within all of us, we have a desire to seek out JOY in our surroundings. Lee says, “I began spotting little moments of joy everywhere I went — a vintage yellow car or a clever piece of street art. It was like I had a pair of rose-colored glasses, and now that I knew what to look for, I was seeing it everywhere.”

Yes, I believe that joy can be found everywhere! Look around you. Embrace JOY and look for ways to find more of it. Perhaps it’s venturing outside for a five-minute walk in nature, indulging in a delicious piece of dark chocolate, picking fresh flowers, listening to the sounds of birds, watching the sunset from a beautiful location, collecting sea glass, seeing a rainbow, spending some time people watching, or viewing old family pictures to remind yourself of fond memories.

Here’s your joy-full activity for the week

Be like Bubblz and put on your “JOY glasses” and go about your day! How will you experience and find moments of JOY? It’s an instantaneous pleasure that you can find from even the smallest things in life, many of which are right in front of you. It’s up to you to open your eyes and start to look in the right places. What are the activities, things, and experiences that make you feel joyful?  Take some time this week to explore!

Bubblz and I would love to hear what you found on your treasure hunt of JOY! Please leave your comments and joy-full responses below.

Note: Here is a link to the Lee TED talk.

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