Are some sprouting bulbs and a ball of red wool the secret to happiness?

On the chest of drawers by my bed I have a small pot of sprouting crocuses and a ball of bright red wool that I spent a few hours untangling this week. Looking at them both when I wake up from my afternoon nap, or switch my light on first thing in the morning, makes me rather happy.

Feeling happy is a good thing, and whilst I wouldn’t say that I’ve been unhappy of late, I’ve increasingly realised that I don’t leave much time in my days for actual fun.

It’s easy to forget to have fun

If you’re someone low on energy then it’s all too easy to get caught up in a cycle of resting and doing. We can all get so careful with our limited resources that we forget to use some of them to have some fun, to keep life (and ourselves) feeling fresh by having things we enjoy doing to look forward to.

It bears saying over and over again that the way to stay creative is to be kind to ourselves. To not push ourselves more than we are able, to nap when we need to, to keep some energy in our energy banks, to drink tea and eat cake and, yes, to have some fun!

Make time for fun

Having fun is a habit like anything else. It may not sound very intuitive to say that we need to plan and schedule our fun, but like any habit that we want to integrate into our lives we need to make the time for it and practice doing it until it becomes second nature. From my own experience I know that fun is one of the first things to go when time or energy is limited.

If life is to be anything other than a treadmill we all need to learn to put “fun” at the top of our lists, not the bottom where it’s apt to fall off. I need to put it in my diary! Perhaps you do too?

Anticipation is the key to happiness

One of my favourite moments in one of my favourite books is when in Winnie the Pooh Pooh Bear is asked what he likes to do best.

“Well,” said Pooh, “what I like best — ” and then he had to stop and think. Because although Eating Honey was a very good thing to do, there was a moment just before you began to eat it which was better than when you were, but he didn’t know what it was called.

Of course we know what he’s talking about is anticipation. Having something to to look forward to really does make us happier, and I think more creative too. I suspect it might even be a way of keeping our energy levels up. Certainly looking forward to things we love to do (and doing them!) makes us smile more.

Crocuses and red wool

So I’m back looking happily at my crocuses and red wool. They make me smile because they both provide something to look forward to, the promise of a little fun. I’m excited to see the crocus bulbs sprout, and wonder what colours they are going to be when they finally flower (yellow and purple I hope). I’m looking forward to spending some happy hours knitting with my bright red wool whilst listening to a play on the radio.

Some ideas for anticipatory fun

What fun things can you plan to do to add a little delicious anticipation to your day? I’d love to hear your ideas. Email me, or post your ideas to Twitter.

Here are some of my ideas:

1. Plant some bulbs
2. Book a ticket for something
3. Plan to meet a friend for coffee (don’t always arrange meeting at the last minute)
4. Make a regular date with someone (or yourself) for breakfast
5. Start an ongoing project ( how about some knitting or a jigsaw puzzle?)
6. Have a book that you can’t put down on the go, and then put it down so you can look forward to picking it up!
7. Order something to be delivered
8. Agree to swap postcards or letters with a friend once a month (seeing the postwoman put a handwritten envelope in the postbox is one of the most cheering early morning sights I know!)
9. Find a TV programme you love to watch and make a date to watch it “live”
10. Get a diary for “fun” appointments
11. Make a list of exhibitions you’d like to see and put one or two of them in your diary
12. Find a recipe for a cake you’d like to try out, buy the ingredients and set a date in your diary for afternoon of baking
13. Invite friends round to help you eat your cake (why not send out proper invitations in the post to make an occasion of it?)
14. Ration something you love doing for a week or two and see how much more you look forward to it!
15. Always stop working on something while you’re excited (and not exhausted!) you’ll look forward so much more to starting again