One of the easiest ways to bring on a feeling of happiness is to think about your favourite things – pull them out of your memory and bask in the warm glow that comes up.
The interesting thing about your memory is that behaves as if everything is happening right now. Meaning that you can feel the same feelings as you did when the event actually happened. And if the event was particularly significant to you, you can see, hear, taste, touch, and smell everything just as it was.
This means that if you call up happy memories your brain will produce the same ‘feel good’ chemicals as in the actual event. Isn’t that neat!
Here are some of my favourite things – I have a list of more than a hundred!
- moonlight over the sea; lying in a hammock; a gentle breeze blowing
- Lorraine’s cheesecake with guava topping or her Amaretto cheesecake
- Pere Anselme Chateauneuf du Pape
- standing in the middle of a steelband and feeling the bass vibrating in my stomach
- dancing on a polished wooden floor to a live brass band
- Poui and Immortelle trees in bloom
- Jazz musicians in a jam session
- Samaan trees
- having tea with a dear friend
- laughing until I cry
- red lipstick and red nail polish on my toes
- a Julie mango ripened on the tree
- the smell of Ylang Ylang flowers
- White Linen perfume
What are some of your favourite memories? Write out a list. Dwell on a few. Call them up in your mind and savour them for a while. Feel the emotions as they come up!
How did that feel? Did you find yourself smiling?
Remember, you can change your emotional state anytime you choose just by doing this simple exercise.
So let’s play! Share with us some of your favourite memories. Write in the comments below.
And did you take the survey as yet? It only takes about five minutes and will help greatly in focusing my offerings to you.
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A million blessings!
Hi CHERYL, thanks for sharing your fav things! It was a reminder for me to update my fav things list.. I’ve a list I created in my journal which I haven’t visited in quite a while. What good is it if I don’t reflect on it and use it in the manner in which you describe? Well today I shall do that…. And I have at least 10 more things I’d like to add to my list! Here are some of them:
– Sitting on the porch in Las Cuevas at night staring at the dark shadows created by nature, listening to the gentle rush of ocean waves, marveling at the sound of every night creature and anticipating full moon rising over the mountain! Wow!
-a text from my granddaughter every night saying “Gud nite, grandma, sleep tite, I luv u”.
– When Gary, my companion, pampers me at night by rubbing my feet and playing with my toes.
– Soursop ice-cream
– The attachment I have with my iPad. It’s like the Mini Me!
– Traveling over the mountain to Las Cuevas, reaching that particular area that makes me exhale and say, “Ahh!”
– the feeling when Elijah, my grandson, sneaks up behind me, jumps on my back and hug me tightly around my neck like he will never let go!
– Sipping from a straw, a cold icy coconut water on a hot day.
– fetching water from a natural spring and having a cold glass of it.
– Cutting ginger lily, balis and bird of paradise and making my own bouquet of flowers.
– The sound of running water.
OK.. Now I see it!!!
Thanks for sharing Ann Marie!
Does anyone relate to this? I do!
Your Comments
I enjoy shopping for shoes
I love looking at the cooking channel to what new exciting recipes they come up with
I love the peace and quite of my space
I like to my job
I like a good movie
! Andd
Thank you Cheryl for responding and sharing! I hope that you focus on your favourite things whenever you feel ‘down’!!
Many blessings,
Cheryl
I enjoyed this post. What a great way to bring the feeling of happiness to your heart. A few on my list would be:
– Spending time in Tobago
– Enjoying a good book or magazine at the beach
– Traveling to and exploring new places
– Capturing images especially during my travels
– Having my nails done
– Getting a massage
– Enjoying the wonderful scent of a candle