Friday, August 19, 2011

Small Joy of the Week

A few weeks ago I was out of the office and returned to find a note on my desk from a coworker: "I borrowed your computer."  My keyboard, which has been grubby and disgusting since I started work there five years ago, had been cleaned. I have, over the years, tried to clean the keyboard with no success. Now it is sparkling white. (Cube neighbors tell me she used hand sanitizer to clean the keyboard. Does that make sense?)

The clean keyboard is wonderful. Every time I see it, I rejoice. That feeling may wear off someday, but it hasn't so far. (Thank you, Cory, for changing my life!)

I have a practice I call Delight of the Day. It is simply to notice one thing each day that delights me. Watching for that one thing causes me to do what psychologists call "positive scanning."  It causes me to practice the twelve-step slogan "look for the good."

I'm going to add to that practice one called Small Joy of the Week. It is to change one object or habit in a way that improves my life. For instance, this week I'm going to clean the keyboard on my home computer AND (I'm going for two) I'm going to give myself permission to use the guest towel in the bathroom when I dry my hands instead of the harder-to-reach bath towel.  Those are small changes, but I think they may have a significant impact on my mood.

[Addendum to my last blog post: I understand that Japanese beetle damage does not hurt the tree itself. It just changes the appearance of the leaves.]

2 comments:

nicole said...

Good idea. I've been in a funk lately, so it will do me good to do a little scanning!

Kate Wolfe-Jenson said...

Sorry to hear about the funk. I have to take time to experience the shadow and then move to the light. Too often, I try to avoid the darkness altogether or make a camp there and forget to look for the good...both mistakes for me.