What sparks joy in your life?
I first came across this question in Marie Kondo’s book “The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up.” The premise being, when attending to your physical space, instead of focusing on things you’re getting rid of, focus on things you get to surround yourself with.
Her encouragement, specifically around clothes, is to pick up each item and ask: “Does this spark joy?” If not, get rid of it.
It can feel terrifying, because the knee-jerk response is almost always “what if it sparks joy in the future?” Well, if we take that approach, we’re constantly surrounding ourselves with things that can be dragging us down and cluttering our lives.
In my experience, there is a tremendous freedom and happiness that comes from reducing your physical space to things that spark joy. It’s something one can only experience in going through the process, so I highly recommend picking up the book.
But even before you do, as you go throughout your day today, check in at various points (with different things you own or people you’re around) and ask, does this person or thing spark joy? And if not, you might ask yourself why you still surround yourself with it or them.
Of course, there are scenarios, especially with people, where they may not spark joy but we still must keep them in our life. But the process of asking this question can be illuminating to see how many things you surround yourself with that are not sparking joy.
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