Ultimate Blog Challenge - Joy Jar

Welcome back and happy Sunday! 

Today's prompt is to share a tool that I find absolutely helpful.

Well, apart from the obvious, basically Microsoft Office, I really like Remove Background, Canva, Evernote and Deepl Translator.

However, for this post, I want to tell you about something I've been working on since very early this year when I came across the concept of a joy jar. Also sort of a tool if you will.

What is it?

Exactly what it says: a jar filled with joy.

Where does the joy come from?

The joy comes from you! Your life, your encounters, your experiences.

How does it work?

When something happens that brings you joy, write it down on a piece of paper and place that note in your jar. Do this often.

Why should you do it? What's the purpose?

Whenever you feel crappy, you may want to remind yourself that all is not bad - open your joy jar and read a couple of your positive moments. You may have forgotten about them. Maybe they inspire you to go out there and do something that will give you a positivity boost?

Even if you never touch it throughout the year, it may be a fun activity to empty your jar on New Year's Eve and relive a year full of wonderful moments, big or small.

There's a science behind it, btw. This article talks about the fact that you're more likely to remember bad things that happen to you. It has to do with evolution. Your brain has to remember not to eat the poisonous berries that made you throw up. You get the picture. 

They go on to say that you must make up every negative experience with five positive moments. 

Well, you've got your challenge cut out for you!

People out there make their joy jar an elaborate and artsy crafts project, others are more hands-on.

Since I'm a picture taker, and a person who tries to avoid clutter, I figured I'd do it digitally. I created a template that I use to paste my happy moment pictures and capture them with a few keywords. Boom! 

So my "jar" is just a folder on my computer, but as of June 30, I have collected almost 100 joyful moments. Here are some random ones I'm going to share with you.

Meeting with my girlfriends from junior high school for a lovely dinner at an Old Town patio. One became an elementary school teacher, the other is a structural drafts(wo)man and City Council for the Department of Social Affairs, Health and Society. As you can imagine, finding a date to meet, is not an easy task! For next spring, we have the ambition project to plan a class reunion. My part is to contact everyone and find a date. I'm happy to report that from 33 invitees, 22 replied, and 19 can make it. 

Same goes for my full-time working single Mom and best friend. We live literally a five minutes' walk apart, but have to make a huge effort to find time to actually see each other.

On my birthday, a friend who owns a season ticket, could not attend the last home game of the qualifying round. I was happy to step in. Colin, as a youth player, has access to the standing area, but when I texted him that the seat next to me remained empty, he joined me.

While I enjoy our team's games, watching Colin and his teammates play, is just as exciting. This particular match was the one I missed because I was sick. A fellow Hockey Mom, as well as my hubby stepped up and filmed it, which is usually my job. Yes, I put together the highlights of each and every game. The players, parents and coaches enjoy watching them and reliving the vibes.

That day, our guys won 0 : 10, and my boy scored the 10th goal. Tradition has it that the player who does this, has to bring cake for the team to the next practice or game. 

This is us, fulfilling a long cherished wish: We had a fondue dinner in a ski gondola. We didn't have to travel to the mountains. on the contrary, the bathing facility is transformed into a snow magic area in winter. We were fortunate enough to have a reservation on one of the rare snow days this January.

Cutting open a perfect avocado is for sure a good reason to be joyful! More often than not you end up with an avocado situation that is no reason to jump from joy.

A contributor for our town's quarterly magazine is on maternity leave, and I was asked to help out as a freelancer. For Q2 the overall theme was "languages", and I submitted four articles. They were all published. If you can understand some German, you may read them online.

So my husband is (almost) always right. It's annoying. I like to celebrate the rare case where this is not true. We were on our way back from dropping Colin off at ski camp. We were low on fuel, and he was convinced we did not have to stop at the gas station, it was more than enough to get us home. 

Shortly before we probably would have needed to call road assistance, he caved. The next day he had to buy me dinner.

Just like the avocado situation, solving Wordle of the day in only two attempts feels almost like winning the lottery. It's the little things!

What do you think of the joy jar concept? Would you give it a try? No time like the present to jump right in!