10 little things that almost instantly give me a boost

I was making the bed the other morning and an incredible sense of satisfaction came over me.  We make the bed everyday, but I was making the bed a little earlier than usual, and when I looked at the final product, I just felt the tiniest little burst of happy.  It was a sweet little boost and so I started paying attention to other little tiny things that give me that sort of boost.  Because sometimes life is hectic and overwhelming and the littlest boost is what we most need.  In my world, here’s how I find it.

1.  Light a candle.  There is almost always a candle lit at our house through the fall and winter.  The light, the scent in the cold of winter?  It just makes me feel warm even when it is not.

2.  Make my bed.  And the earlier I make my bed, the bigger the boost.  There is just something about a made bed that says, “I am ready for this day” to me.

3.   Clear a little clutter.  When we packed away our holiday decorations, I went a step further in the kitchen (where there were really very few holiday decorations) and cleared off the countertops as much as possible.  The effect was an opener feeling room (which is nice because our kitchen in the little cottage that could is tiny) and an opener feeling me.

4.  Put on my glasses.  I’ve worn glasses since 7th grade and I desperately need them.  Yet, sometimes I wake up and putter around for a while without my glasses.  When I do that, I am so slow and unproductive.  Then I put on my glasses and suddenly everything is crisp and clear and I am, too.  I try to remember to put on my glasses as soon as I wake up so that I don’t miss those minutes (or hours) of engagement with the world.

5.  Pet my dog.  Sometimes all I really need is Lola’s earnest THANK YOU! look while I am rubbing her chest and pulling on her ears.

6.  Imprint.  BF and I call hugging imprinting as in, “I need a little imprint.”  And BF might be the best imprinter around so a hug is definitely good medicine around here.

7.  Rearrange something.  Sometimes what I most need is to shake something up. It can be little– like the picture frames on a table– or bigger- how we organize Happy’s toys.  Both give me a little thrill.

8.  Send a note.  I love dropping notes in the mail.  Just love.  Pre-motherhood, I was also quite good about birthdays but between the busy-ness of motherhood and the epic brain drain from my B-12 deficiency, I am not as good at remembering birthdays anymore.  Since I love doing it, though, one of my goals this year is to rebuild my birthday calendar (I used to just rely on memory to recall people’s birthday but I don’t have those memories anymore) and get back to sending birthday wishes, too.

9.  Pleasure read.  I was just thinking yesterday that the thing I want more of in my life is reading.  I would love more reading time.  Right now, any spare minute I have goes to working (I even work while I watch favorite tv shows) but I am looking forward to creating a life with a little less work and more time to just enjoy things that bring me pleasure like reading.

10.  Step outside.  Watching wildlife, listening to nature, and just feeling the sun on my skin give me an instant boost, even if I can only manage it for five minutes.  I am  a total cold wimp and cold, to me, is 50 degrees (my Caribbean roots die hard) so I don’t enjoy this as much in the winter but I take great advantage of being outside as soon as it passes my it is warm threshold.

What little things give you an instant boost?

{image source~ no, our bed’s not this fancy}