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ٰWe all celebrate the big things in life. Weddings, newborn babies, marriages, home-buying, promotions and more. But when it comes to long term happiness these isolated, “big things” are actually less important to your life satisfaction than the small things.
This is mainly due to the rareness of the big things. You are surely to get a temporary lift in happiness when you get that promotion or when you have that baby. But once the event fades your new responsibilities kick in and you may even feel more underwater than you did before.
You might have noticed that whenever we sit and remember our happy moments in the past, we usually enjoy the little things in our life. These are the moments that truly make our life rich. More importantly these little things are event we can count on every week or month or maybe even every day, where the big events come quite infrequently.
But it is human nature to overlook these little events. We think them to minor, too inconsequential and only pine for the big life changing events that happen so rarely.
So how can we develop our mindset to acknowledge and celebrate the little things in life? How can we tell when we are experiencing these important small things in life, and how can we make sure we give these small things their important place in our minds and attitudes.
This post will show you how you should be enjoying the small things in life and features 25 important ways you should think about these small things so that these “small things” have an outsized positive impact on your life.
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25+ Little Ways to Enjoying Small Things
Enjoying the small things in life is easy. It just takes a little effort to enjoy the things that are likely already happening in your life; but simply need a mindful moment to appreciate the good they bring to your routine.
In this section, we are listing five easy ways you can begin to appreciate the small things every day. These are just the beginning, you can add your own ideas to this list as well. If you would like to share some of your ideas on enjoying the small things, do let us know in the comment section below.
1. Gratitude Journal to Keep Track of Small Things:
Consciously notice the small things throughout your day and record them. Positive psychology studies have shown that writing in a gratitude journal daily is the single biggest factor in increasing happiness and life satisfaction.
It is not that MORE good things happen to you when you do this, but you NOTICE more of the good things that happen to you daily and this in turn helps to improve your outlook and help you embrace much of the beauty of life you may have otherwise missed.
We cannot actually celebrate and enjoy the small things if we don’t track them. Small things happen to us throughout the day, and this is where a gratitude list comes in handy.
At least write in your journal (every night) three things (small things) of your day that you noticed and feel positive thoughts about. This can be anything from a positive interaction with friends or family, a random act of kindness from a stranger or even something beautiful in nature you enjoyed.
2. ‘Thank You’ Goes a Long Way:
Notice the small things in people of your life as well. They do a lot for us.
When someone does anything for you, do recognize it from your heart. In this modern age, we all go through our lives looking after only ourselves, so when someone goes out of his way to do something for you, take a moment and say ‘Thank You’ deep from your heart.
If you missed the opportunity to appreciate the small gesture, take some time to write a thank-you note to the beautiful person who did something for you!
3. Compliment People for Small Things:
Sincere Compliment to anyone can make up their day!
Try to look for specific things (however small) in your friends, family, colleagues, and spouses and compliment them about it. Below are some ideas for you to get started:
- Compliment Their Smile
- Compliment Their Apparel (or its color)
- Compliment Their Hairstyle
- Compliment Their Hard Work
- Compliment Their Struggle
The ideas are too many. Just be consciously aware of the small things and compliment them. You can do this with a stranger as well.
4. Do not Forget Yourself in Small Things:
As you try to notice small things in your life, thank people for their small gestures and compliment people for small things, do not forget yourself in all this goodness.
You are amazing as well. You are the masterpiece of the universe (YES YOU ARE!). Compliment yourself.
You are reading this guide to be better in life, you make a small and hugely positive impact on the people around you. So never forget the small things that you do so that you can keep doing them.
5. Enjoy the Small Things by Living in the Moment:
Our lives are just the present moments sewed together. Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu once said that
‘“If you are depressed you are living in the past. If you are anxious you are living in the future. If you are at peace you are living in the present.”
At this very moment, you are reading this article. You are alive, your heart is working to flow blood throughout your body, you are connected to the world!
Can you see that just how many things there are to be thankful for?
Living in the moment can truly teach us the art and value of enjoying the small things in life. Because it’s only the small things in life that usually matters.
We will be facing challenges and struggles throughout our day, to make these difficulties a little easier, we need to learn the art of living.
A healthy, positive, and grateful frame of mind is the first thing we need to enjoy our lives.
11 Strategies for Enjoying the Small Things in Life
Now we will focus on different areas of your life where you can enjoy the small things to get yourself started. These strategies and ideas will help you in getting started with what you already have in your life, and that is the real key.
1. Enjoy the Small Things at Home:
Everyone has a lot of items in their home. Just look around your home and you will find a lot of things, pictures, furniture items and more to appreciate and enjoy.
Think about a moment, all these things are here to serve you, to be a part of your life. Touch and feel the texture of these things. Try to be one with them.
Notice these things and ponder over the meaning behind them.
Try to remember their history, how were you feeling when you bought them? Why you bought them? With Whom?
All these questions will fire up your inner core to appreciate and to be thankful for all the small things you have in your home.
2. Enjoying the Small Things with Food:
Choose a meal of your choice and enjoy it thoroughly.
While cooking, think about all the ingredient and their history. From a seed to a crop and to a neatly packaged item in your mall, these ingredients are now in your kitchen to soon become a part of yourself!
Smell the aroma while you are cooking and let it go deep inside you. Notice how these ingredients, separate and complete in themselves, are now joining together to become the meal for you.
Feel the texture and feel of the food you when you touch it. Register its temperature when you put it in your mouth, let all your taste buds truly enjoy the different flavors in that single bite.
Enjoying all the small things in your food this way might seem a bit odd to you, but try it at least once, you can thank us later.
3. Enjoy the Little Things in Your Relationships:
Enjoying the small things in life can never be complete without the beautiful people you have in your life.
Recognize the value people have added in your life. Imagine the faces of these people who have given a part of themselves to build your life.
Look at your parents, think what they are struggling with and yet they are there for you, thank them for it.
Think about your brother or sister, look at what they have gone through and yet they are with you.
Look at your friends, think about all the crazy things you experienced with them.
Appreciate the value of these relations in your life by noticing the small gestures, which we usually ignore or take for granted!
4. Learn to Enjoy the Small Things from Children:
If you have kids around you, you have the perfect opportunity to learn the art of enjoying the small things in life.
Look at how children play! They enjoy all of it. They live in the moment and live every moment thoroughly.
When they laugh, they laugh fully. When they cry, they cry with all their energy and when they play, they forget every other thing in life. They can play with a brand new shiny and expensive toys and rusted old broken items all the same!
This attitude can teach us a lot in terms of living in the moment and appreciating the little things life.
5. Enjoy the Little Things in Nature:
Go outside and experience the beautiful world. You can start by just sitting in a park or you can take it a bit further if you want to go climbing, hiking or having a walk in the forest!
Whatever is comfortable with you, just go out in nature.
Go out in nature and observe the years of work that took nature for this perfection. Experience grass beneath your feet, look at the vast sky above your head, look at all the strong trees and beautiful flowers around you.
All of this nature is here to serve you!
Look at yourself as well, you are nature as well.
6. Enjoy the Small Things with Music:
We listen to music while we jog, we listen to music while we work out, we listen to music while we commute.
But today, listen to music while you do nothing.
Just pick up your favorite track, be in your favorite place and put on those headphones to truly immerse yourself in the experience of the beautiful melody.
Try to identify the different instruments, how they join together to form this music. Listen to every beat and imagine the artists doing all of this just for you!
Immerse yourself in that track for the whole duration of it. You will surely enjoy its magic.
7. Enjoy the Small Things in Clothes:
Clothes are a complete story in themselves.
From the material which is used to the hands which handled them throughout the stitching process, it’s a complete work of art.
Whenever you put on clothes, try to appreciate the effort which went into it.
Another important thing to note is how clothes affect our moods as well. A sharp suit might make us feel confident and dominant, while an old sweater makes us feel cozy and ‘at home’.
Experience all these details with your clothes from this moment onwards.
8. Enjoy the Small Things in Breathing:
Breathing is an act which humans do on their own. Therefore, it is often taken for granted.
To truly enjoy and appreciate the small things in life, we have to recognize how much a blessing breathing is!
Breathing rejuvenates our body. It relaxes our nerves and freshens our blood. Breathing helps each molecule in our body to truly thrive and help maintain our systems.
Breathing keeps us alive!
Therefore, take 3 to 5 deep breaths and notice all these important things being done for you. Thanks to your creator for this gift. Thank for being able to breathe.
9. Enjoy the Small Things in Technology:
Technology makes our life easier. Think only about communication. How hard it was to communicate something with your loved one who lives far away from you just 10-15 years ago!
Think about the technology we have today. We can communicate with our loved ones, even if they are at the other end of the world, within a few seconds.
We cannot only send our message, but we can even hear their voice. Not only the voice, but we can also see them and be with them all with the cell phone in our pocket!
Be grateful for the ease that technology brings in your life. From communicating to commuting to handling the daily chores, these are all the little things to be thankful for.
10. Enjoy the Small Things in Rest & Leisure:
Nothing can be compared to a night full of good sleep and nothing can be compared to a leisurely evening.
These things are really beautiful experiences of our lives which we can experience daily. Try to include some meditation and relaxing techniques in your night routine to get a good sleep so that you can wake up in the morning to truly live the day.
Try to take some time out for yourself throughout the day. It can be a snack break, a body stretch or even meditating for 5 minutes.
These small things throughout the day will make every day truly worth living.
11. Enjoy the Small Things in Big Things of Life:
This may seem paradoxical to you. But bear with me!
As we have discussed earlier, all the big things in life are actually the small things combined.
Therefore, enjoy the big things in your life by recognizing that they are not happening suddenly. It took years of hard work, diligence, patience, and grit to achieve them.
Celebrate these big moments, take time to truly enjoy them. Register them in your life and in your being before moving on with your life.
Big things are as important as small things in life, appreciate and enjoy both.
Quotes on Enjoying the Small Things
Vernor Vince points us towards a very important point about giving importance to important things in life. If we only keep seeing the big avalanches in our lives, we will miss the little triggers which usually become the cause of those big things in life.
Little more exercise daily, little more reading daily, a bit more daily work and all other little yet regular activities of our lives makes us truly great.
Another truly great point on enjoying the little things by George Bernanos that we shall not make decisions based on appearances. He acknowledges that on the surface level, little things seem nothing but on the deeper level they are the things which give us true peace in our lives.
So keep doing those small things to truly enjoy your life so that one day your life can become a beautiful and pleasant bed of little roses.
This one points our direction to the importance of little things. Again a big thinker like Frank A. Clark is recognizing that all the big things are actually made up of many little things in life. So instead of making ONLY big goals and ONLY seeing them as success indicators, we should acknowledge that our every effort and every step is taking us towards our goal.
This mindset, of recognizing the importance of little things and seeing the connection of small things with the bigger things in life, is what it takes to truly enjoy the small things in life while accomplishing the big things as well.
As we get older we tend to move away from life’s simple pleasures. But Leo Buscaglia is sharing his own tendency of still getting excited about little things in life such as playing with the leaves and running against the wind.
No matter what our age is, we should not forget that age is just a number. It is our spirit that fills our lives with great enthusiasm and zeal. So let’s make a promise to ourselves that we will always remain excited about all the little and beautiful things in life.
In this quote on enjoying the small things, Mother Teresa consoles us that even if you only able to take little steps towards your goals, even if you are struggling with putting in all the BIG efforts in your life, even then remain faithful because you are still on the path.
More often than not, we think that if we are not doing the big grandiose things then we are wasting our lives. But be faithful, because in the little things is your true strength.
Yet another enjoying the little things quote which points our attention towards the connection of small things with the big things in life. So, always remember that there is no such thing as an overnight success or a sudden failure. All steps are connected.
As we mature, we become more and more able to see the wider picture and the role of little things in our lives. That smile you expressed to a stranger, that handshake, that little compliment you made to your colleague become the real reason for our deep connection with all those people.
These are the things that we can see only in hindsight, but we can be wise and listen to the experiences of others to adopt this mindset in our youth as well.
Khalil Gibran explains poetically the magic of small things in life. His life is filled with such experiences and we can observe his fascination with simple things in life by his work as well.
Another great quote on enjoying the small things in life by Napolean Hill. Napolean has interviewed hundreds of successful people in his lifetime, his suggestion of doing small things in a great way teaches us a truly important lesson.
You see, the method of doing a task is more important than the task itself. Anyone can write a book, but it takes real effort to truly write a great book. Anyone can compose music, but it is a master’s task to soothe the ears with it as well.
Here it is, the secret of success in plain words. According to the great Booker T. Washington, success lies in our ability to pay attention to the small things in life.
Every day we are presented with dozens of opportunities, yet we ignore them just because they are in front of us. Develop the habit of recognizing and valuing the daily, simple things in life to actually achieve success in life.
We have selected this quote on enjoying the small things in life by Nelson Mandela for a reason. More often than not, we realize the importance of things once they are taken away from us.
In this quote, Nelson Mandela is talking about the same thing. Learning from this, we should start valuing each and everything in our life as a blessing. The ability to see, touch, to smell and to think are not to be taken for granted. These are all precious gifts and we should make the best use of them.
Mandela notes tiny things like buying a newspaper, the freedom of taking a walk, or even the freedom to remain silent are all the little things in life which we should be enjoying while we have them.
Zombieland on Enjoying the Little Things!
Enjoying the small things in life is so important that even a Hollywood movie, Zombieland, portrayed it as a basic rule to survival in life, and we truly agree with them.
For those of you who don’t know, Zombieland is a movie based on the following plot: There are zombies taking over the world, you have to survive at all costs, therefore, there is a list of rules which is known as ‘list of list of survival rules‘ which you must follow:
It is the ‘list of survival rules’ which is of interest to us here in this post. There is a famous dialogue in the movie as well as explaining the benefits of this rule in a simple, non-philosophical manner:
You can’t spend all your time worrying about where your next Twinkie is going to come from, so follow rule #32 and Enjoy The Little Things.
– Zombieland
So enjoy the little things in life so that you can truly live a Hollywood-style life!
‘Enjoying the Little Things’ Tattoos
We take little things in life for granted. Therefore, celebrating them is really hard because they are not even in our consciousness as we zombie around our day. To tackle this issue, many people are getting these four simple words tattooed on their bodies. I don’t recommend going so far, because if you are serious about living a life worth living, then you should remember this simple rule.
But for those who might be interested, here are some unique and beautiful designs of enjoying the little things tattoo:
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‘Enjoy the Small Things in Life’ Signs & Pillows
If you are not that nerdy or extreme to get this sign and message printed on your body, then we have some other cool ideas for you as well.
Below, we have collected some of the most beautiful, and inspiring and simple ideas for you to keep reminding yourself about the importance of enjoying the little things in life. You can do this easily through the Signs & Pillows with the message of ‘Enjoy the Little Things in Life’ written on them in a beautiful manner.
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Enjoying the Small Things in Life Wallpapers
These wallpapers will help you in reminding yourself again and again about the ways and importance of living a truly fulfilling and happy life. Enjoying the little things life requires a lot of hard work in the start and hopefully, these enjoying the little things in life wallpapers will help you do that hard work in life.
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Dangers of Not Enjoying the Small Things in Life
Focusing only on the big things in life while totally ignoring the little things can be truly fatal for our happiness.
These big moments of life come with inner and outer pressure which results in stress and unstable mental life in most people.
Some of the negative consequences of these are:
- Anxiety
- Difficulty in Sleeping
- Weak Immune System
- Body pain, etc.
Always wanting more instead of enjoying the simple things we have can also lead to a very unsatisfying life if left unchecked.
If we persistently maintain our focus on only big things in life, it can lead to a disappointing and unhappy life at the end.
Sometimes we have to pause in life and enjoy all the little things and moments which make our life truly worth living.
The kind of mind focused only on the big goals and achievements puts your attention on everything that you don’t have. So you are focused on the ‘lack of things’ in your life as a result
But all is not lost, as the ability to enjoy and appreciate the small things in life can truly enhance the quality of your life in a huge way. In fact, there are now scientific reasons the celebrate the small things in life to practice daily gratitude.
A huge collection of scientific studies has now proven that being happy and practicing gratitude is a SKILL, which means anyone can learn it.
The most important things in life are the small things. Even in relationships, small things do add up the make up the beautiful whole.
FAQs on Enjoying Small Things in Life:
What are the small things in life?
These small things are not always the materialistic things that please you, These are the things that bring you the smallest amount of pleasure when you feel them. So don’t take them for granted.
Why are the little things in life are important?
These small things can make your whole day better and bring positive thoughts instead of making your day miserable with negative things.
Enlist a few things that make you happy?
These are the following. Start your day with gratitude, laugh every day with full zest, take some alone time, do what makes you happy.
What makes life happy?
Choose positivity instead of giving a place to negative thoughts in your life. Be happy who you are right now and spend time with those who bring out your happiness.
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