Simple Ways to Find Joy

This week I went on a quest to find joy in simple ways...

Here is what I discovered

First, I want to start by saying that searching for joy doesn’t erase any of the ugliness in the world around us. Sometimes it means finding a spark of joy in spite of it. That’s exactly what it felt like for me this week.

It was last Thursday, June 12th, when I decided to spend a week looking for the simple joys.

My belly told me to do find joy

Yep, you read that right—my belly told me to.

Do you remember back in school when your teacher told you to go with your gut when answering a test question? That part of your belly—that’s what I’m talking about.

That gut instinct. It’s also called your intuition.

Your knowing.

We all have access to it.

I believe that with my whole heart.

We just might need to remember how to find it again. Do you feel that way too? Yeah, me too. Or at least I did, until a few years ago.

How finding joy started

Finding joy doesn’t need to be elusive. It doesn’t even need to be a scavenger hunt—though that could be fun! But it does need to start somewhere. Even if it’s just a little spark inside your belly.

For much of my life, people have told me I’m one of the most positive people they’ve ever known. And when you live with a positive mindset, joy can be easier to access. You start to see it in the little things—like a bee entering a flower, clouds forming shapes, or your favorite movie popping up right when you have time to watch it.

Just like our gardens, though, if joy isn’t cultivated, it can begin to feel like it’s slipping away. That’s how it felt for me for a while. Like joy was getting harder and harder to find.

Especially in 2020, when our oldest moved out to go to college and life changed. Not in a bad way. Not in a good way. Just... changed. I felt like I had gone into a cocoon, and I needed to figure out how to be in this new phase of life.

How did I start to find joy again?

I asked for help. I needed to rediscover myself—my joy.

So much was going on—entering perimenopause, adjusting to life as a family of three, and living in a world that no longer felt the same. I needed someone to help me make sense of it all.

My husband knew it wasn’t going to be him (though he tried, and I love him for it). The help I found came in the form of a therapist who truly understood this phase of life.

That was my first step in finding joy—realizing it was gone, and letting someone help me find it again.

Then what?

I felt myself start to emerge. Slowly and surely. Like a butterfly. Inch by inch, out of the cocoon I had built around myself.

I found astrology. I realized the planets in the sky offer us energetic support—but it’s people who choose how to use it.

In 2020, I discovered I was in the middle of a Saturn cycle. These “check-ins” happen every seven years or so. This one was directly opposite my natal Saturn. And while I was in therapy, Saturn in the sky was right on top of my Moon—making those lessons feel very personal and very internal.

Most people have heard of the Saturn return (around age 29–30). It’s when Saturn checks in to ask if we’re doing what we came here to do. He’s the teacher of the zodiac. I like to imagine him as a principal who walks into your classroom, looks at you and says,“Sarah, come here. We’ve got some things to learn now.”

The key thing to remember is this: Planets do not do things to people - people do.

Planets do not do things to people - people do.

I had to process what it meant to step into a new version of myself. We were three years away from an empty nest. It would soon just be my husband, our dog, our cat, and me.

I had to learn how to find joy without relying on seeing it reflected in someone else’s eyes. I had to find joy for me—even when life wasn’t handing out obvious opportunities to do so.

So where do you find joy?

In the little things:

🐝 Watching a bee tend to flowers in your garden

☁️ Imagining what stories the clouds might be telling

📖 Writing a story that sparks joy for you—and maybe others

🎨 Learning a new skill and saying, “I did that!”

🎬 Rewatching your favorite childhood movie and laughing, smiling, maybe even crying

😂 Laughing until your belly hurts

🫶 Reminiscing on good memories with someone who makes you feel safe

So where did I find joy this week?

🌸 In Legally Blonde: The Musical—a Mother’s Day gift from my amazing husband

🎂 In celebrating him on his birthday with one of our favorite movies

🏞️ In hearing our youngest describe scaling a mountain on a five-hour hike

🌼 In seeing a bumblebee dive into a flower while I watered our garden

🌳 In admiring the trees while walking with Max under the bright sun

🌈 In listening to rain, spotting sunlight peek out, and turning toward the rainbow

What would you add to the list?

Feel free to share them in the comments below...

Finding joy doesn’t require money or even much time.

It does require a shift in mindset.

A decision to follow the spark in your belly.

To feed that feeling of hope that joy brings.

When you follow that feeling—choose to follow that feeling—things that once felt hard start to find a way through.

We can choose to feed sadness, or we can choose to feed joy.

Does that mean you can’t feel sad?

Of course not. You’re allowed to feel it.

I just invite you not to let it consume you.

And if it does start to feel that way?

Talk with someone you trust—a friend, a therapist, someone who can help you hold the heaviness.

They say it’s always darkest before the dawn...And yet, the dawn always comes.

Just like joy—if you want it to.

So I’ll ask you:

Will you take up the invitation to create your own simple ways to find joy?

I’ll be here, cheering you on if you do.

With love,

Sarah