The Happy List: 31 Ideas to Sprinkle Simple Pleasures Throughout Your Day
Do you ever feel like you’re not enough?
When you have chronic migraine, COPD or Crohn’s disease, simple activities like taking a shower, doing groceries and going to doctor’s appointments can take up so much of your limited energy that there’s little left for other ‘bigger’ goals. All your friends and peers seem to be building careers, traveling the world and raising families, and you may feel like you can’t keep up.
Even worse, living with a malfunctioning body or brain can make you doubt whether you are good enough. You may worry that you’re a burden because you depend on others for help and support. Or maybe you feel judged by the people around you, on how your psoriasis skin looks, on your (lack of) productivity, on using mobility aids or not. It can be hard to have a positive self-image when you’re reminded everyday of all the things you can no longer do.
Our modern Western culture puts a lot of emphasis on reaching for ‘more’. There’s a lot of focus on self-improvement, from optimizing our body and mind to learning new skills and achieving exciting goals. I love all that, but it also makes you wonder, do we ever reach a point when we’re perfectly fine as we are, flaws included? And will climbing the social ladder and buying more stuff actually make us happier and more fulfilled?
Don’t get me wrong, if you’re so sick you’re stuck in bed most days, of course you long for more energy, more activities, more quality of life. And if you’re struggling to make ends meet each month, having more resources can also make your life much better.
But when those feelings of not being enough, doing enough or having enough exists mostly inside of you, remember that there are no rules or guidelines about what is ‘enough’. And ‘more’ isn’t necessarily better.
Living a simple life with a few people you love and activities you enjoy is just as valuable as leading a busy life with a packed social calendar. Taking tiny steps towards a goal that’s meaningful to you matters just as much as making big lifestyle changes. ‘Enough’ doesn’t have to mean you settle for less, it can also mean you feel genuinely grateful for what you have now while you work for what you’d like to have in the future.
And even if your chronic illness chose it for you, there’s beauty to be found in living slowly, with time for quietude and contemplation. Like Leonardo Da Vinci said, ‘simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.’
So let these 14 quotes below comfort you that what you do is enough. That what you have is enough. You are enough.
What helps you on those days when you don’t feel you’re enough?
You can find more tips on how to accept your changed body and new reality by clicking the links, or learn more about flourishing in the face of adversity and sincere ways to feel grateful when you’re sick.
