Mining Nuggets of Joy Every Day
Many days can be overwhelming. Be Mindful of the Nuggets of Joy that are all around us.
Updated 2026: For many, if not for most of us, our days are filled with stress and anxiety from the moment we wake up till we fall into an often-troubled sleep. Covid exacerbated things! The pattern repeats with alarming frequency. There are many expert articles and videos addressing stress reduction, better sleep, depression, and other related symptoms. One of the many techniques recommended by the experts is to be more aware of each moment of each day, a concept coined as "mindfulness" or "being mindful". Much of the mindful discussion is around inward awareness to identify stress triggers and head them off in advance.
There is another aspect of mindfulness that is simple but is often ignored in our outward perception of the world. These are the small joyful moments happening every second of every day, many of them around us in plain sight, if we just cast off the many blinders that stress and anxiety put on our perception. Like a prospector panning for gold, we need to mine these nuggets of joy at every opportunity. Finding one can have an instant, amazing effect, relieving stress and putting a smile on your face. Itself often contagious to people around you, even if total strangers, who themselves may well be having a bad day.
A nugget of joy comes in many forms. The list is endless, but here are just a few recent joy nuggets mined by the author. A toddler's questioning glance, a dog creatively scratching its back, a fleeting cloud in the form of a white buffalo, a friend's spontaneous and beautiful laugh, a waft of fresh-baked cookies. a granddaughter's softball game .....
Don't settle for mining just one nugget a day. There is no daily limit - the more the better! Stress and anxiety have a nasty tendency to creep back in, and a steady supply of joy nuggets is a great equalizer to cast out those dark thoughts.
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