Boost your happiness in 7 days
The joy intensive
Happy Friday, Intentionalists!
The change of seasons is a wonderful time to reset your life. Today, we share an easy program to boost your happiness in just one week.
How much you boost it is up to you. You can go all out on these exercises and create a major shift in your life, but we’ve also designed them so they can be fitted into the busiest of schedules.
Even if you can only devote a few minutes a day to this program, you’ll reap the benefits of increased levels of happiness and well-being.
The exercises are also flexible. If you are currently going through a tough time and feel that the idea of ‘happiness’ is a bit of a stretch right now, then you can adapt the exercises to be more about self-support, comfort and peace.
If you have a partner or children, perhaps you can do these together. But if they’re half-hearted about the idea, do the Joy Intensive for yourself first. They might join in later when they see the results. If your bestie is up for doing the week’s exercises with you, that’s a great way to keep yourself accountable and amplify the results.
As well as your journal this week, you’ll need your diary or calendar. We aren’t going to be focusing on prompts so much as scheduling the exercises into your choice of planner.
We’ve put the exercises in a logical order, but if it works better for your schedule to swap some of the exercises around, you can do that too. Do all seven steps over the next week and enjoy the boost to your happiness they bring!
EXERCISES
DAY 1: DECLUTTER SOME ASPECT OF YOUR LIFE
Spend at least 15 minutes (more if you have the energy and time) decluttering, organising or repairing something that you never seem to get to (but that is always weighing on your mind or is creating an inconvenience). If you’re super busy or if decluttering makes you feel overwhelmed, you can start on a micro level:
Clean out the interior of your car
Get your desk drawers in order
Do an edit on the items you are carrying around in your handbag
Polish a pair of shoes or put them in for repair if they need it
Clear all the unread and unimportant messages from your email inbox, etc
The idea of the exercise is to unblock an aspect of your life and create a greater sense of ease.
DAY 2. PAMPER YOURSELF
Spend 15 -30 minutes (more if you like) doing something that you wouldn’t normally do for yourself but that feels luxurious and pampering for you. If you have the means and the time to pay a professional, you can certainly do that. But it’s not necessary. We have some easy, quick and inexpensive suggestions below:
Have a relaxing bath
Try out a face mask or deep conditioning hair treatment
Soak your feet in a tub of Epsom salts and lavender oil
Give yourself a manicure or pedicure
Follow a YouTube video on facial massage
Do a full body scrub, then lather on a rich body lotion
If you are always rushing in the morning, go to bed earlier the night before and get up earlier to have a relaxing cup of tea in the garden or somewhere else quiet before the busyness of the day takes hold
What you do is not as important as how you do it. Apart from the YouTube follow-along, banish all devices from your pampering activity. Either do the activity in silence or with soft, relaxing music in the background.
In other words, don’t wash dishes, vacuum the house or watch television while waiting for your mask to dry! Be fully present and send love towards your body as you do the exercise. The idea is to give a message to your subconscious mind that pleasure and pampering yourself is good for you.
Note: Men – this activity is for you too!
DAY 3. THE WORD
Pick one of the words below that describes an emotion or quality that you would like to amplify in your life:
Joy
Love
Appreciation
Gratitude
Peace
Healing
Fun
Write a paragraph about what your life would look and feel like if that emotion or quality was more present.
Now pick two activities that you do 10 or more times a day:
Examples:
Walk into your kitchen
Sit down at your computer
Open your refrigerator
Wash your hands
Get into your car
Pat your pet
Pick up your phone
Drink a glass of water
Write those two activities down.
Then, add to the list the major activities you do each day:
Examples:
Wake up
Breakfast
Lunch
Dinner
Go to work
Come home from work
Go to a class
Exercise
Go to sleep, etc
On day three, before doing each of the things on your list (or while doing them if that is more applicable), you’re going to take one slow breath in and out and say your word (out loud or silently).
If you do this exercise all day with dedication, you’ll experience a major shift in your life. If you do only one exercise this week, do this one!
You can supercharge this exercise by putting index cards or post-it notes around your house, desk and car to remind you to say your word. If your children are joining you in the Joy Intensive, they may like to paint or illustrate their word (and if they do we would love to see it!).
DAY 4. FUN – Schedule a fun activity today
The activity should be something that makes you laugh and puts you in a playful and light mood. Be silly, creative and playful. But make sure the activity is fun for everyone involved. For example, don’t organise a tennis or squash game if you are highly competitive and get upset if you lose, or play Scrabble with your partner if the game is likely to end up in an argument and steer clear from practical jokes that could be interpreted as humiliating or hurtful.
Examples of fun and playful activities:
Watch a funny movie
Visit a theme park
Have a game night with your family or friends
Put googly eyes on random items around the house (or a friend’s house) for them to find later
Have a karaoke session or dance party – by yourself or with friends
Mail a friend with a good sense of humour an unexplained but silly gift, eg socks with your face printed on them, a whistle, a pen with a name on it that isn’t theirs, etc
Paintball, Twister or a ride down a slide are all good for the giggles
We’d love to know what creative ways you come up with to be playful and silly!
DAY 5. APPRECIATION – For someone special in your life
Today, you’ll send a card or a letter to someone important in your life (not a text or an email. Make it a beautiful and special memento).
Write ten things that you appreciate about them or ten special memories of them, or tell them how they have positively influenced your life. This could be your partner, a friend, a parent, someone who mentored you, a sibling, etc. If you are in a situation where you don’t feel you have someone like this, write the card or letter to yourself but still post it. Genuinely loving and appreciating yourself and feeling worthy of love is the best way to call in more love and friendship into your life.
DAY 6. DO SOMETHING KIND FOR SOMEONE ELSE
Set aside time to do something kind for another person, animal, plant or local community. Choose someone or something that you might normally overlook.
Examples:
Donate to a charity
Give a bunch of flowers to an elderly neighbour
Make dinner for your parents
Set up a birdbath in your garden or plant a native tree for the local wildlife to enjoy
Water a street tree that is looking thirsty
Pick up the rubbish in a local park (if you are allowed to do so)
Leave positive reviews for four or five businesses whose services you have appreciated
DAY 7. REST
Never resting and never allowing your brain to have some empty time is a form of self-abuse. While it would be ideal to spend significant time resting today, getting an extra hour of quality rest can still significantly refresh and reenergise you.
Examples of ways you can rest today:
Don’t watch the news or look at social media for 24 hours
Have a luxurious sleep-in
Go somewhere natural and don’t listen to anything else but the sounds of nature around you (no music, no podcasts, etc)
Go to bed an hour earlier than usual with a great book (or your partner – wink!)
Refuse to get into any sort of argument. Just say ‘Well, that’s interesting’ or ‘You may be right’ and leave it at that
Lie on the grass and watch the clouds
Take your dog or baby for a walk and be present with them – don’t listen to music or podcasts, etc. Even though your dog or baby can’t talk to you, bonding can take place without words. Dogs aren’t with us forever, and babies grow up quickly, so enjoy their presence fully
Spend some time journaling about what has shifted in the past week for you
[Kelly Edit: I’ll be honest, this is the one I struggle with. I have so many things buzzing about my brain I find it hard to sit and be still, but I’m going to try!]
If you fully commit to doing each of these daily activities in the next week, you will certainly experience a boost in your happiness and well-being.
If you felt the benefits of the Joy Intensive, you could repeat it each month – or even every week! Why not? The best way to be happier is to be intentional about it.
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FEEL GOOD AFFIRMATIONS
I am intentional about my happiness
Feeling good is a priority for me
I am playful, fun and creative
Pick an affirmation and say or write it slowly ten times. And if you want to repeat all three affirmations, that’s wonderful, too!
KELLY’S SILLY BIT
In the early 1950s, something truly amazing happened! Two people in different countries came up with the same idea for a comic strip character at the same time, with the same name that came out on the same day.
They both dreamed up a mischievous boy who loved to run amok, a character that resonates with children still today!
UK
Dennis the Menace
On the 12th of March 1951, Dennis the Menace appeared in issue 452 of The Beano (a British anthology comic magazine).
The idea for the character came from a 1935 British music Hall song, Dennis the Menace from Venice by Eddie Pola.
Take a listen below:
The Beeno's editor heard this song and asked for a character to fit the name. Like many great ideas, Dennis's look took shape at a pub after a few when chief sub Ian Chisholm and artist Davey Law were brainstorming, he was sketched with spiky black hair and a scowling face on the back of a cigarette packet.
Dennis was a hit! A badly behaved naughty school boy, are you kidding? He was a hero. It was akin to the Just William books of the 1920s that were a favourite of John Lennon when he was a lad. (Soz, I can’t resist adding Beatle facts sometimes).
Spiky black hair, a scowling face and a red and black striped jersey, the tough boy hooligan has been causing a rumpus since then!
US
Dennis the Menace
On the 12th of March 1951, Dennis the Menace made his debut in the daily syndicated newspaper comic strip.
Henry Ketcham worked for Walt Disney, where he worked on Pinocchio, Fantasia, Bambi, and several Donald Duck shorts.
After serving in WW2, he began a quieter life working as a freelance cartoonist.
His Dennis the Menace is not based on a song, but on his four-year-old son Dennis. After skipping a nap and choosing to wreck his bedroom instead, Henry’s frustrated wife burst into the studio, at her wits’ end and shouted, "Your son is a menace!"
Initially, Dennis was portrayed as an aggressive little trouble-maker but has mellowed over the years. More of a raggamuffin with an abundance of energy, much to the chagrin of his poor neighbour! ‘Oh, Mr Wilson …’
Wild, isn’t it! That two people can have such a similar idea at the same time. If you know of any other fun coincidences, we’d love to hear them!
Be an intentionalist.
Belinda & Kelly XX
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