A Chic Paris Lockdown – Part 2: Day 13 – Double-Down on Happy
November 15, 2020
“Have things to look forward to” is the title for Day 13 in 30 Chic Days At Home by Fiona Ferris. She writes that having a list of small and large “good” things to look forward to keeps her spirits buoyant and her mindset focused on the positive. Simple things like a half-hour with a magazine before dinner as well as larger things like her writing projects add an opportunity for gratitude and a nice zing of anticipation into her daily experience.
I find it enjoyable to have small “treats” to look forward to and to plan for. I like to make lists in preparation for whatever treat is coming up. The anticipation and planning are usually as much fun for me as the actual event. I used to think that maybe this was just an example of a Type-A, list-maker’s obsessoive-compulsive behavior but Gretchen Rubin, author of The Happiness Project, looks at it differently. She writes that there are four stages to really enjoying our happy experience: we happily anticipate it, we savor it as we are in it, we express our happiness in the moment and then we remember the happy event often. Using these four steps, we can consciously pay close attention to the full, joyful flavor of our happy experience. It’s the very opposite of going through a supposedly happy event on auto-pilot, physically present but sadly, mentally miles away. I’m doubly pleased by Gretchen’s perceptiveness – I can delight in my list-making and planning and I can enjoy that I’m in the process of enjoying. (So, really, it’s a win-win-win!)
With the Christmas holidays approaching, I would usually be deep in the preparations for a big trip. Given the events of this year, I doubt that there will be a big holiday trip for us as a family for quite some time. I am still looking forward to the holidays even though they will be a bit different than our usual. As part of enjoying the anticipation, I’m reading Fiona’s book, A Chic and Simple Christmas, for inspiration for a peaceful and joyful feeling holiday even with all the CoVid uncertainty around us.
My “Things to look forward to ” list contains experimenting every 2-3 days on a new low-carb recipe. (Today’s lunch was a successful homemade gluten-free pepparoni pizza. La Grande Epicerie down the street was very supportive this morning as I came in search of a few new-to-me ingredients.) Even if a recipe is a complete dud (and there are plenty of those), it’s still fun (and funny) to try.
Each morning I enjoy the small but delightful pleasure of my gratitude walk here in “my” neighborhood in Paris. I love wandering through in the Parc de Ranelagh and sipping my coffee. I look forward to enjoying the quiet beauty of the buildings and the trees as I’m getting dressed and making my coffee. This is definitely an entry on my list of “Things to look forward to.”
Fiona’s advice to keep a list of small and large things to look forward to help us to keep our minds focused in a positive direction. It also gives us the opportunity to double our enjoyment of whatever happy event is approaching – we can have fun with the anticipation and plannng part and have fun as we experience the actual event itself.
