8 Silly Little Ways to Have more Joy

Joy and imagination are secret sauce to your life. This list of 8 silly little things that I do to bring me more joy in my day are yours to borrow. I promise you that you haven't heard most of these because I made them up so please don't expect this episode to be something "scientific" and "boring" because I bet you haven't tried half of theses but you absolutely should! Let me know what sticks, what resonates, and what you're willing to try all in the name of having more joy. 

Let's Connect! 

To get more info and updates on the podcast find me on Instagram (or the gram as the kids say)

@marycatemcdonald

For Coaching Inquiries reach out here: 

https://marycatemcdonald.com/contact

Sign up For My Weekly Newsletter here:

https://marycatemcdonald.myflodesk.com/weeklynewsletter

Show Support: 

If you're enjoying this episode, I would love it if you could please rate, review, and subscribe. If you're extra loving it and know someone who would also enjoy your impeccable taste please give it a share on socials. 

Thank you again for joining me on this podcast. I am so grateful you are here!

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hi, and welcome to It's Not That Serious, Even When It Is. I am your host, Mary McDonald. I am a coach and use human design as a tool to see my clients deeply and guide them to a more joy-led and embodied life. On this podcast, we will have deep conversations and some giggles because life can't be so serious all the time. Hi, and welcome to today's episode. I am going to talk about 10 things I do to bring myself joy. I'm not saying that these are for everyone. So, you know, take what you want and leave the rest. And uh yeah, these are 10 things. And I look, here's what I want to say about this also. I feel like there's a lot of stuff around joy and around happiness, and it'll be like, here's the scientific proof this works. And like, I'm gonna just tell you that I am the proof that this works. There's no science behind this. And sometimes I get a little bit bogged down in some of those personal development things where it'll be like, I just have to prove to you that this works. So I'm gonna tell you scientifically why it works. And sometimes that's really interesting, and sometimes you just gotta be a silly goose, and that's why it works. And I'm sure there's some science behind it, but sometimes it's literally just like, I'm gonna act like a silly little goose, and I'm gonna be a little crazy bean, and I'm gonna be a little wild noodle, and I'm just gonna have a good time, and that's what brings me joy. Science be damned. Um, so here are 10 things. Number one, I'm gonna call this the coffee dance. Every single morning, I either make a coffee or I make a tea. So this works regardless of your morning beverage. Maybe you're making a water. I don't know. If you're making a water, just good for you. I'm really happy for you. Um, but if you're making a tea, this can, you know, it's gonna take like three minutes to steep your tea. If you're making my kind of fancy coffee, which is called a latte, um it's gonna take like six minutes. Here's what you're gonna do. You're gonna find a song. You're gonna find a song that you enjoy dancing to. And you can borrow a couple of mine. The first one, I the one I'm into lately is Sweet Judy Blue Eyes by Stills Crosby and Nash. And you guys sometimes just a side note. I botch singers and bands because I just don't that's not something I really remember that well. So if I did botch that, apologies. But Sweet Judy Blue Eyes, it's so good. The second one is Spirit in the Dark by Aretha Franklin. Also a solid choice. I, as I'm making my coffee, I turn on that song and I dance the full Sweet Judy Blue Eyes is six minutes. So that's usually more of my latte song, if you will. But it doesn't really matter. Even if I'm making tea, I'll be like, well, this has to steep for three minutes, and this song has like six minutes, and you know, whatever. Um, and I dance in my kitchen and I'm like, I dance with reckless abandon. And and I try to make it as ridiculous as possible because the whole point of me moving my body is to make myself giggle in the morning. And I laugh so much while I'm doing it because I'm like, this is the most ridiculous thing. How can I move my body in the most ridiculous way? And just a side note on that, too. You know how people say, like, move your body every day. This counts. This counts. It doesn't have to be a workout, although those are great. I love I love a good workout. This is actually just like moving your body to music, being a silly little noodle, and having a really good time first thing in the morning. And this happens whether rice is at home or not at home. I just really enjoy doing a dance and um making it as ridiculous as possible. So you may, you may borrow my songs for this, but I dare you to try it because you will have a much better start to your day. All right, number two, wigs. Maybe you won't buy a wig and maybe you will. Here is the thing about here's my story about wigs. So I create a lot of sketches that are based on real people. Well, not always. Sometimes they're based on real people and frustrations that I've had. So, for example, the HOA, it apologies if you're on the board of one and you do a really good job. It is not the case in my neighborhood. So we were being fined for something that was really ridiculous, and it frustrated me to no end. Like I was kind of in this little spiral of like, yeah, I'm gonna chill them off. And we would get these newsletters that were also really ridiculous. Like one of them had a section that said, pets and nuisances, and it was literally all about try to make sure that your dogs don't bark loud because it's a disturbance. And you can just well choice words for whoever wrote that, but that how stupid is that? Okay, dogs are gonna bark regardless, and I don't care if you have the most well-behaved dogs, it's going to happen. That's just who they are. Let them live, my God. Anyway, so I took this frustrating thing and I created a character, and I kept, I created like a voice for her, because in my head it's uh her that wrote this. And I had this wig that was from an old costume. I created this character and I kept asking myself, like, oh, well, if this is true about her, then what else? Like I did a little character development on her. So it'd be like, well, if she thinks that barking is ridiculous, then what else does she think is ridiculous? Is she going around to um everybody's yard and like measuring the lengths of their grass? Is she skipping over people because she likes them, but she doesn't like certain other people? Is you know, is she using favoritism? And so I just did really like a fun deep dive on like who this person actually is. And what it did was it took me out of this cycle of being frustrated with the actual person. I mean, yeah, do I still think the incident was really stupid? And I'm am I still like, you know what? You're well, this is my podcast, so I can say this. You're a dumb bitch. But did I feel like that? Yeah, I do. And do I still sometimes feel like that? Yeah, absolutely. However, using humor to dispel my frustrations and create a little character around who I believe this person to be um really brought me so much joy from something that was really, really frustrating me. So I say like wigs is number two, but it's really just like take your frustrations and see how you can flip them on your head and then just kind of like make them overly ridiculous so that you can laugh. Because it's like, I do, I probably do this with maybe it's inappropriate to say this, but I do this with a lot of people who like annoy me. I'll be like, oh yeah, and then you know, Miss Note all over here was like da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da. And then it's just like jokes on jokes on jokes. And then I actually just feel better. And it's not because I'm necessarily making fun of the person, but it's just well, maybe that one was. But it just like dispels the whole frustration with a little bit of humor and allows me to release the frustration with a little bit of humor. So next time you run into a situation, perhaps just I don't know, create a fictional story about them and have a little improv with yourself. Because the more improv I did with this person who is the head of HOA or whatever, who I thought they were, the more ridiculous it got, the more hilarious it got. The more Bryce and I would laugh about it instead of being like so frustrated by it. So yeah, take a frustrating situation. If you have a wig and you want to embody it, it's you know 10 times more fun. If you don't do a little character development on that person because I promise you, the next time you encounter them, which I've actually never met this person in real life, but there's I've done this with other things. And the next time you encounter them, you kind of start giggling because you're like, I created this whole character about you that isn't necessarily true. It's just like a very heightened version of you. And and I'm just gonna now have a little giggle about it because I I did that. Okay, number three. I call this Little Italy and a Treat. So we go to the farmer's market every Saturday, and there are a couple different vendors that have like little pastries, and I love a little fancy pastry. It just something about it just like really does it for me. I'm like, look at that little guy. And then I'm like so delighted when I just like split it up into a couple pieces and I like savor it over a day or two. Okay, enough about that part of it. Here's what I do with my little pastry. My little joy of pastry joy. I I will sit outside, or if it's too cold, I'll sit at my dining room table and I'll open the windows and like have a good view. I have a really great view where we live. And I will pretend that I'm having my tea or my coffee with my little tart and that I am in my dream villa in Tuscany. And it really does it for me. So here is what you're gonna do. You're gonna have you're you will have had your morning dance with your coffee or your tea, and then you're gonna sit down with your little tart. And you're gonna pretend like you're in a far-off place that feels really good to you. Wherever you like to travel. So, you know, maybe you're in Aspen, or maybe you are in the Cayman Islands, or maybe you're in Italy at your villa. Whatever it is, you're just gonna pretend that you're there while you're having your little treat and that you're just like really visualizing being there in the way that it feels. And there's just something about playing pretend as an adult. And I I mean, maybe you gathered that from my last wig tip. But there's something about like playing pretend as an adult that like I don't think that we do enough. And I don't think that we like allow our minds to believe in something that's not, you know, necessarily real yet. Um, because I will have a little villa in Italy one day. Um, that is one of the goals. But there's something really lovely about just pretending for a little while in the morning and just really like being somewhere else, and not in a like escapism kind of way, but just in a like, oh man, this is what it would feel like if I was on my porch in Italy right now, taking like I sometimes I just close my eyes and I'm like, hmm, like what would it smell like this, and the grass is like this, and it feels you know, this way under my feet, and this is the kind of table I'm sitting at. And I just really let my imagination go. And I think it's just a really refreshing thing to do because again, I just I don't think we pretend enough or have enough imagination as adults. And I think this little exercise, it I mean, clearly it brings me a lot of joy, but it just kind of makes me exhale because you know, we're often so caught up in like our to-do lists and what we want to get done, how important that is. And, you know, it's all serious and business all the time. But sometimes it doesn't have to be like that. Sometimes we're just gonna like play pretend and like have our coffee and our pastry. It's just oh, just I highly encourage it. Highly encourage it. Okay. Number four, put your feet in the grass. Probably you've heard this one before. When I get stressed out in the middle of the day, or I get, I call it like screen fatigue, or I've looked at my phone for too long, or I've looked at my computer screen for too long, or whatever the thing is, and I'm like, I gotta get away from this. I gotta step away. Um, I go outside and I literally put my bare feet in the grass and my face in the sun. And um I just give myself, I set a timer for like 10 minutes so that I'm not looking at my phone. I'm not worried about the time. I don't I turn my notifications off. Um, and I am just super unbothered for 10 minutes while I put my feet in the grass and while I let the sun hit my face. Now, maybe you're listening to this episode and it's winter where you are. Okay, so maybe you don't put your feet in the grass because maybe it's like cold as shit. So maybe that is still turning on your timer, turning on some high frequency, right? High frequency music and just letting your mind just drift into nothing for 10 minutes while you lay on your couch, while you get away from all the things and all the responsibilities that you have. And you just have 10 minutes where you're like, I'm gonna literally give myself 10 minutes to think about nothing because everything that I'm working towards is gonna be there in 10 minutes anyway. So I'm gonna really take this break to myself. So that is I didn't number these in my list. That was number four. Okay, number five, reading for pleasure. I started reading for pleasure again about a year ago. And I started reading fantasy. And I as a kid always read fiction. I mean, I always I like I read Harry Potter, I read like Nancy Drew growing up, I read Mysteries growing up. I I just I loved to read growing up. And I've said this before, but I was reading a lot of personal development for a lot of time, and of course it's great, and of course I love learning things. However, there's something about pictures picking up a fictional book and just diving into a world that doesn't exist and again like letting your imagination go be somewhere else, just go relax. And I get well, I also get like pretty emotionally invested in these. So if you're following me on Instagram, you know, because I talk about it a lot, because I'll be like, oops, I can't finish this at this moment in time because I'm you know scared for my characters who are now my friends, obviously. Um, but reading for pleasure, like pick up something that it's not about reaching your goals, it's not about being better, it's not about learning something new, it's about enjoying a story, enjoying storytelling, enjoying, you know, diving into your imagination and letting it like paint pictures of things you've never seen before. Again, I don't think that adults spend enough time imagining things and just, you know, enjoying this kind of stuff. So pick up a book. If you want recommendations, DM me on Instagram. Because I have like when I tell you I started reading for pleasure and then I could not stop. I have Kindle Unlimited now. So I read one billion books, and I I don't even know how many books I read last year. It was that many because I was just like flying through them because I thought, oh my gosh, I've really been missing out. Like I'm having so much fun doing this. And then what it led to was me talking to a bunch of friends at the office and creating relationships because now we like all love books and we have that in common and we could talk about how much joy we have reading these books and be like, oh my gosh, you're not gonna believe when this happens. And yeah, I'm just so excited for you to read this and you're really gonna love this. And it's just it's such a cool thing to get to talk about. And maybe it's a little bit of a I mean, I guess guys probably do this too. I don't know. I'm I'm just a girl, so I'm gonna tell you. But it's like we get caught up in these, you know, uh in these stories, and it's just so fun to be able to talk with other people about it and get excited about it. Um, it's just uh highly, highly recommend. Okay, number six. Take a walk outside. Take a walk outside, and here's what you're gonna do. When you pass someone, you're going to smile and you're going to say hi and you're going to acknowledge them. I grew up doing this. Like we just did this where I grew up. It does not always happen in LA. And like people are honestly sometimes taken aback when I say hi because I don't know them. But even that, even that makes me gibble because I'm like, wow, this is we are disconnected here. I promise you, saying hi to someone and smiling is not only going to make you feel great, because I mean, even if you feel awkward at first, I guess. I mean, not if it's a, you know, never mind. That's a side thought I had that doesn't matter. But just smiling and saying hi to someone is just going to raise your vibration. And it's gonna raise theirs too. Like whether they know it or not, you know, whether they're caught off guard and like what a weirdo she talks to people she doesn't know. Well, rock on because it's just a nice thing to do. It just feels good. Okay. Actually, I will have a story about that. I don't know if I'll share it. Maybe should I share it? I should share it. No, I don't know. Maybe later. Okay, so that was number one. Seven. Okay, seven. You guys, I lied about this list. It is actually eight things. I should have I should have put numbers by these. By my list. Okay. Number seven. Watch a comedy or something you like laughing at at least one time a week. There are a lot of dramas that are so good on TV right now. There like Bryce loves the pit. We love that there's a new Game of Thrones Thrones um show that is a spin-off, and it's really good, but it's also a little lighthearted, so that's kind of nice for me. But I actually, at the end of the day, sometimes can't handle stuff that's really intense. That's probably why I am also reading more, because I'm like, I can't handle really intense things. I just get really stressed out. Um watch something that makes you laugh, even if it's on an old movie, even if you know, whatever it is, but let something outside of yourself make you laugh. And I guess that goes too for like the people that you follow on Instagram. There is a dog named Spud on my Instagram feed. That dog, I'm obsessed with this dog. It's like this little dog who freaks out over, it'll just do like a bunch of zoomies and it'll freak out over like little different pieces of fruit. And that is the entire account is this dog freaking out over like little things, and it's so cute and it's so fun. So ingest something like that. Watch something like that that makes you laugh at least once a week. Um, something outside of yourself. Okay, and number eight is call your best friend. Call your best friend because inevitably you're gonna laugh about something. Yeah, you'll get caught up on the serious things and all that kind of stuff. But inevitably, like one of you is gonna crack a joke and you're gonna laugh and you it's gonna feel so good because laughing with your best friend is like, ugh. I don't, I don't even know. Like you guys know, it's like when you're laughing with your best friends, it's just like, oh, it's so good. It's so good. It's just such a reminder that we have people we love that we get to do life with. And um, calling your best friend, I just I have a lot, I say this because I have a lot of long distance best friends. And when I connect with them, it's like my day is so much better. My day is so much better because they're one, all hilarious, and two, I just they're best friends, you guys cherish them, cherish them, especially if you live close to them. I don't live close to all of mine, and I wish I did. Our husbands would probably be like, our husbands would probably never see us actually because we've Having so much fun together. In my brain, we would all be going to like if you've seen those Instagram reels where like all the girls go out to lunch but they're wearing wigs. That is my entire personality in a nutshell. And that's what I feel like I would be doing more of if I looked closer to more of my best friends. But anyway, so like I said, here are eight things to do to bring more joy into your life. And it's as as this podcast suggests, it's not that serious. Have a little fun, poke a little fun at things. And yeah. Let me know. Do let me know if you try any of these things out, especially the wigs. I mean, I will be so oh my god, the amount of joy. If I could just if if I could get more people to wear wigs and do ridiculous dances, I think, I think my purpose here in general and in life would it would be done. I I would be so happy. I would be so happy. So if you do any of these things, will you just tag me because I just love I love shit like this. Anyway, all right, you guys have a good one, and I will catch you on the next episode. Thanks for being here. Thank you for joining me on today's episode. If something resonated with you, then we are probably best friends. And friends, rate, review, and share episodes. If you want to stay connected, you can find me on Instagram at MaryKate McDonald. That's MaryC A T E McDonald. If you want more information on coaching or want to keep connected in my weekly newsletter, you can find that in the show notes. Thanks again for joining me on today's episode. I'm looking forward to catching you in the next one. And just a reminder that it's not that serious, even when it is.