Make it a goal to celebrate life in some way, however small, every day. Below you’ll find a list of 50 simple joys to help remind you to slow down, celebrate life, and enjoy the moment!
The ideas were taken from my eBook, “500 Simple Ways to Celebrate and Enjoy Life“.
1. Have afternoon tea “alfresco”. Find a small coffee shop with tables set up outside; or pack a picnic basket—filled with iced tea, chicken salad from the deli, scones, and a warm, crusty loaf of French bread–and head out to the park.
2. Go for a bike ride. Like John F. Kennedy once said, “Nothing compares to the simple pleasure of a bike ride”. Better yet, ride your bike to a swimming hole and take a swimsuit and towel along.
3. Plant pots of brightly colored flowers; you can choose to plant camellias, violets, and geraniums. For fragrant blossoms plant jasmines.
4. Find George Carlin videos on YouTube (Carlin is hilarious). Here’s a great one to get you started: George Carlin Talks About “Stuff”.
5. Renew a relationship with someone you’ve lost touch with.
6. Create a collage of pictures of your loved ones, frame it, and hang it up in a visible spot in your home.
7. Blow bubbles.
8. Get a delicious, gooey brownie and savor every morsel.
9. Arranging beautiful flowers in a vase is a simple, exquisite pleasure.
10. Give someone you love a gift “just-because”. Better yet, make it a care package or a gift basket filled with their favorite things: flavored coffee, a great coffee mug, and the book they’ve been wanting to read; microwave popcorn and all of the “Indiana Jones” movies on DVD; their favorite scented bath products; and so on.
11. Get your picture taken by a professional photographer.
12. Create a butterfly garden in your yard by choosing butterfly-friendly plants.
13. Stretch out on your couch with a compendium of your favorite comic strip, read it through from beginning to end, and laugh until your stomach hurts. If you don’t have a favorite comic strip, I recommend Calvin & Hobbes.
14. Plan your fantasy vacation. Do online research, cut out pictures from magazines, collect brochures from travel agencies, and plan your vacation to the last detail. Don’t censor yourself by thinking about the cost or when you’ll have the time to go. To paraphrase Goethe, first you move and then Providence moves too.
15. Start putting together your Christmas list, both what you plan to give others and what you would like to receive. (Thinking about Christmas always lifts my spirits, no matter what month of the year it is.)
16. Learn to bake peach cobbler.
17. Go to a body of water near your home and skip rocks.
18. Hunt for bird nests. When you find one, don’t touch it, just look.
19. Go to an arboretum or a botanical garden. Take a sketch pad and pencil and capture anything that inspires you.
20. Make a donation: donate your time at a food shelter; invest in a third world country entrepreneur through www.kiva.com; donate blood; donate clothes you no longer use to a battered women’s shelter; donate children’s books to a hospital nearby; celebrate life by paying it forward.
21. Listen to Vivaldi’s “The Four Seasons”.
22. Sing in the shower.
23. Do something that gives you a sense of luxury. You can get a leather notebook to jot down your thoughts, or a beautiful fountain pen. Start collecting fanciful note cards so that you have them on hand when you want to send a hand-written “thank you”.
24. If you love reading, join a book club. Sharing your love of literature with others is a great way to celebrate life.
25. Watch the sunset.
26. Watch the sunrise.
27. Get a yo-yo. Learn the “Walk-the-Dog” trick and the “Drop in the Bucket” trick.
28. Wear audacious underwear. Nobody has to know.
29. Buy a bird feeder—or even better, build one—and hang it in a place where you can see it often.
30. Go outside at night—or climb up to your building’s rooftop—and look at the stars.
31. Stop and really listen to a street musician.
32. Go to a pet shop and “ooh” and “aah” at the puppies and kittens.
33. Simmer apple cider, cinnamon, and cloves in water on your stove.
34. Play a game you loved as a child: play with marbles or jacks; jump rope; play hopscotch; draw with colored chalk on the sidewalk; get some Play-Doh; or go to a park and climb on the swings.
35. Whenever you take on a task at work ask yourself: “Is there any way to make this task more fun?”
36. Read poetry.
37. Get yourself a big book of sudokus or crossword puzzles and sit back for an afternoon of fun mind stimulation.
38. Sit down with a large art book filled with Impressionist paintings by artists such as Monet, Renoir, Sisley, Pisarro, Degas . . .
39. Find a shampoo and conditioner that smell like watermelon.
40. Walk barefoot in the grass.
41. Go out for a walk in the rain. Deliberately step in puddles.
42. Visit antique stores and flea markets until you find the perfect brass knocker for your front door, one that makes you smile every time you’re about to enter your home.
43. Buy the softest terry cloth robe you can find and put it in the drier just before taking a shower, so that it’s nice and warm when you get out of the shower and put it on.
44. Get a bright red umbrella.
45. Go out for a walk and take your camera along; take photographs of interesting faces.
46. Listen to Louis Armstrong singing, “What a Wonderful World“. Here’s the best line from the song: “Trees of green. Red roses too. Skies of blue. Clouds of white. The brightest day. The dark sacred night. What a wonderful world. ”
47. Eat your favorite cereal from when you were a child: Fruit Loops, Lucky Charms, Honey Nut Cheerios, Cap’n Crunch, etc.
48. Listen to your favorite “Beatles” songs.
49. Go out and play Frisbee with a friend. If you have a dog, better yet.
50. Have an ice cream cone!
Conclusion
In the words of Fannie Fern, “There are no little things. Little things are the hinges of the universe.” Live your best life by celebrating the little things every day.
Get 500 Simple Ways to Celebrate and Enjoy Life
If you enjoyed this post, you’ll love my eBook, “500 Simple Ways to Celebrate and Enjoy Life“. It sells for only $4.95. It’s a 55-Page PDF with over 10,000 words and it’s chock-full of easy ways to savor every morsel of life.
Here are some of the sections you’ll find inside:
- Celebrate Life With Family
- Celebrate Life With Friends
- Celebrate Mornings
- Celebrate Life by Pampering Yourself
- Celebrate Life by Doing Something Creative
Marelisa Fabrega is a lawyer and entrepreneur. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., as well as a Juris Doctor from the Georgetown University Law Center. You can learn more about her 
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Marelisa – Your books really do stimulate and inspire me! Thank you so much. I just wish I could have them all in hardback form, though I appreciate it would cost a bomb to publish them and even more, sadly, for the likes of me to buy them. I really do think they are inspired! Thank you for all the thought and effort you’ve put into them.
Anne-Marie
These are wonderful. Life is about the details, isn’t it? Reading this made me realize how little we think of ourselves. We look for romance and intimacy out there. We are the love we want. You can add one more thing: write a helpful list and give it to a friend, such as you have done here. Thank you.
Hi Sandy: Yes: writing about simple pleasures is a simple pleasure. 🙂 And it’s even better if you share it with others.
Hi Anne-Marie: Thank you so much for your continued support. I’m very glad you find my eBooks inspirational. it is one of my dreams to see my eBooks in paper form; hopefully the day for this isn’t too far off. 🙂