small happy habits

a few things i do to make myself feel irie

I won’t claim to have all the answers in life, but I will say I’ve collected a few tricks for making the journey a little bit more enjoyable. In this post, I’ll share them with you.

1 – spinning full albums

Remember the feeling of getting a brand new CD? You’d open up the plastic case, pore over the album booklet, and listen to it front to back in the car or on the boombox on your bedroom floor. You’d pick out your favourite songs, mentally noting their number, texting your friends ‘listen to track 7!!!!’. Nowadays it’s rare that we ever spin a full album more than once, and in the age of customised daily Spotify mixes, it’s becoming even rarer. I’m on a solo mission to bring this activity back. Artists spend a lot of time building the feeling of a record, ordering the songs the way we’re supposed to hear them, and the greatest albums take listeners on a journey, telling a cohesive story. Rather than defaulting to playlists full of only the ‘best’ songs, I’m enjoying listening to full albums and discovering tracks I’ve neglected over the years. Do Ya Thang is such an underrated song by Rihanna from 2011.

2 – lunchtime walks

I know my colleagues have been feeling a bit neglected because I’ve formed this lunchtime walk habit instead of freezing my toes off in the park with them during our lunch hour (sorry guys). But for real, using this time to stretch my legs and have a mosey around parts of London I’d never venture to on the weekends has changed my outlook on office days. Rather than feeling the JAMS (just ate must sleep) slump, I return invigorated, clearheaded and ready to take on the rest of the afternoon. Albeit a little sweatier.

3 – DND during work hours

4 – one good podcast

5 – the three…two…one method

6 – planning out meals

7 – zero screen time before bed

8 – investing in my space

9 – ditching self-doubt + self-criticism