01: Don’t Delay the Delight
As you pause for tea today, see if you can remember something small and ordinary from recently that brought you joy… Perhaps it was a smile from someone, a moment that made you laugh, a sense of ease that arrived unexpectedly. Notice why it mattered, however small.
Now, ask yourself, is there anything you’ve been waiting to finish, fix, or earn before allowing yourself to feel joy? Maybe it’s a task, a version of yourself, a future moment? Notice what it feels like to loosen your grip on that (even if just for a moment) and let joy exist in this moment alongside everything else.
Finally, imagine joy as a gentle pull rather than as something to achieve. If joy were a compass rather than a goal, where might it point you next in one small, ordinary moment today?
See what comes up for you.
p.s. For your pause for tea this week, I recommend Besos De Cacao & other teas here.
📷 eteaket
02: A practice for joy
In a world full of suffering, joy can feel misplaced. Yet again and again, especially among those closest to struggle, joy emerges as essential, not escapist. Ross Gay suggests we’re skilled at fighting what harms us, but less practiced at naming and protecting what we love. Without that, our visions of justice lose their grounding. For Gay, joy is not naïve happiness but “adult joy”: a tender, disciplined attention to delight that coexists with suffering. Through The Book of Delights, he invites joy as a practice that strengthens our capacity for care, mercy, and a more just world.
Listen to Ross Gay on the OnBeing podcast with Krista Tippett
Listen now: OnBeing
03: Joyful: The Surprising Power of Ordinary Things to Create Extraordinary Happiness
Joyful: The Surprising Power of Ordinary Things to Create Extraordinary Happiness is a 2018 nonfiction book by designer Ingrid Fetell Lee. Blending psychology, design, and neuroscience, it explores how physical environments and everyday objects influence emotional well-being through aesthetics.
Read now: Aesthetics of Joy
Thanks for pausing for tea with me today.
If this helped, I’d love a quick comment, a heart, or a share. It genuinely helps this post reach more people who need a calmer next step.
Erica x
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