Last Saturday I was at a Quest event in London.  I don’t get to go to as many of them as I would like to, so when I do make it down there I do my best to connect with as many people as I can and soak up all the love and energy that’s present.  This one was no different – there were hugs galore, the sound of happy chatter filled the room and there was a smile on every single face.  It felt like coming home.

Before the event officially started for the day I was having a deep conversation with friend of mine, catching up on each others news and the things that are going on in each of our worlds.  He used to split his time between Cornwall (where he lives and works) and London (where he has another practice), but has recently made the decision to put down roots in Cornwall and stop the alternate-weekly commuting he was doing.  “It just drained me too much” he explained.   I agreed with him – although my commute to London is much shorter than his was, it is still a large chunk of time out of my day (door to door it’s a five hour round trip).  We talked a little further about this and then he suggested that I made two lists;

1: a list of the things that drain me,

2: a list of the things that energise me.

As it happens, I’ve been suggesting the same thing to a number of clients over recent weeks, either setting it as an exercise for them to do in between sessions, or doing it in the session with them.  The great thing about these lists is that they can apply to pretty much anything – work life, home life, friendships, marriage… even life as a whole I guess (for the big picture people amongst us).

Coincidence?

Fast forward to this evening.  As I was checking my emails the latest post from the Hello Happiness Card Company popped into my inbox.  I love reading what they have to say, so I opened it immediately.  It was all about ‘joy bringers’ and ‘joy stealers’ – noticing the things in our lives that bring us joy (and making a conscious effort to do more of them) and being aware of the things that steal our joy (so that if there is something we can do to change it, we can do it, and if there is nothing we can do to change it, we can do more of the things that bring us joy in order to help us deal more effectively with the things that steal our joy)  Or words to that effect.  You can read the full (much more eloquent!) post here.

Anyway, synchronicity being what it is, I’ve decided that all of these things are trying to tell me that it would probably be a good idea to make those lists.  I might even do both versions – the energises/drains and the joy-bringers/joy-stealers.

I can already think of several things that could go on my ‘drains/joy-stealers’ list: commuting to London; the twice-weekly food shopping trips to Tesco; arguing with my middle daughter…

I can also think of many, many more things that can go on my ‘energises/joy-bringers’ list:  taking photos; long walks in the fresh air; yoga; connecting with people (physically, emotionally, intellectually); exploring new places; having a really great therapy, supervision or coaching session with someone; writing; quality one-to-one time with each of my girls…

I have a feeling this exercise is going to be quite insightful!  It might even help me make some decisions about things that I ‘ve been wrestling with recently.

If you like this idea, why not give it a try?  Feel free to pop back on here once you’ve done them and leave some examples of the things that energise you and bring you joy as well as the things that drain you and steal your joy.  You might be surprised to find that seeing them written down and sharing them with the other readers of this blog is all you need to begin to make changes where you would like to make them in your lives.

I’ll look forward to finding out what you discover about yourselves.

Thanks for reading 🙂

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