Hello,

The Five-Senses Journal has arrived! It’s such a thrill to hold the physical object in my hands.

When I was working on my book Life in Five Senses, I cobbled together a DIY five-senses journal. In a small notebook each morning, I wrote a line of headers, then filled it in throughout the day:

• See
• Hear
• Smell
• Taste
• Touch

This approach helped me pay attention to my five senses, but the pages looked messy and makeshift.

The new Five-Senses Journal, by contrast, is very pleasing. It feels substantial and inviting. It will make a wonderful keepsake of a particular time. Bonus: it only takes a few minutes in total to complete a day’s entries.

Also, I’m the rare person who was deeply annoyed by the process of keeping a gratitude journal (which I did as an experiment while writing The Happiness Project). I discovered that for me, a five-senses journal is a non-annoying way to keep a gratitude journal. It’s a different approach to paying tribute to the bounty of the world.

Does a five-senses journal appeal to you?

Onward,

5 Things Making Me Happy

How would you depict the tracking of time? This week, I went to my friend Sarah Sze’s exhibition Timelapse at the Guggenheim Museum. (If you’ve read my book Life in Five Senses, she appears in the chapter about—no surprise—“Seeing.”) The show was mesmerizing. There was so much to see; it felt limitless.

This weekend, my daughters and I visited the Elephant’s Trunk, one of the biggest flea markets on the East Coast. I do love a flea market. I was on the hunt for something scarlet for my collection, but I found something I wanted even more: this old sewing kit. I love anything with cunning compartments, and I also love retro packaging. I have an idea for an art project I might do with it, too. All that jumble sparks my imagination.

I love seeing the progress that people have shared on social media following Halfway Day and the creative ways they’ve interpreted the Happiness Trifecta (one-word theme, 23 for ‘23 list, and the Go Outside 23 in ‘23 challenge).

Here’s a new distinction I’m starting to ponder: From my observation, some people often experience themselves from the outside, as if they were a character in a novel or movie. For instance, in her essay “No Place Like Home,” Nancy Franklin writes:

When I rode up in my elevator…I always became flooded by a melancholy vanity, as if I were being watched through a hidden camera. “Here is a young woman living in New York. It’s the end of the day, and she’s going home to her apartment.” To me, my self-conscious weariness was cinematic and fascinating. It made me feel like an adult.

However, I almost never experience that feeling myself. How about you? I’m not sure what it means, but it’s interesting.

In college, I read Stendhal’s On Love, and I’ve never forgotten this passage—which, I realize now, beautifully evokes the senses: “You hear a traveler speaking of the cool orange groves beside the sea at Genoa in the summer heat: Oh, if you could only share that coolness with her!”

Updates

• If you’d like to establish a writing routine or set aside more time for creativity, join this month’s two-week Habit Jump-Start in the Happier™ app. Week one provides tips to help you to map out how, what, when, and why you want to write. Week two offers quick prompts to help you get going. It’s free to participate and starts this Sunday, July 16th.
  
  
• Next week, I’ll be joining my old friend Jonathan Fields, renowned host of The Good Life Project podcast, for a LinkedIn Live event where we’ll explore the surprising connections between our five senses and our work life. Join us on July 17 at 11:15 AM PT / 2:15 PM ET and RSVP here.

Featured

ARTICLE

Lessons Learned from Halfway Day

PODCAST

More Happier: More Strength and Stamina, a New Metaphor for “Empty Nest,” and an Easy Way to Keep a Journal

Hello,

The Five-Senses Journal has arrived! It’s such a thrill to hold the physical object in my hands.

When I was working on my book Life in Five Senses, I cobbled together a DIY five-senses journal. In a small notebook each morning, I wrote a line of headers, then filled it in throughout the day:

• See
• Hear
• Smell
• Taste
• Touch

This approach helped me pay attention to my five senses, but the pages looked messy and makeshift.

The new Five-Senses Journal, by contrast, is very pleasing. It feels substantial and inviting. It will make a wonderful keepsake of a particular time. Bonus: it only takes a few minutes in total to complete a day’s entries.

Also, I’m the rare person who was deeply annoyed by the process of keeping a gratitude journal (which I did as an experiment while writing The Happiness Project). I discovered that for me, a five-senses journal is a non-annoying way to keep a gratitude journal. It’s a different approach to paying tribute to the bounty of the world.

Does a five-senses journal appeal to you?

Onward,

5 Things Making Me Happy

How would you depict the tracking of time? This week, I went to my friend Sarah Sze’s exhibition Timelapse at the Guggenheim Museum. (If you’ve read my book Life in Five Senses, she appears in the chapter about—no surprise—“Seeing.”) The show was mesmerizing. There was so much to see; it felt limitless.

This weekend, my daughters and I visited the Elephant’s Trunk, one of the biggest flea markets on the East Coast. I do love a flea market. I was on the hunt for something scarlet for my collection, but I found something I wanted even more: this old sewing kit. I love anything with cunning compartments, and I also love retro packaging. I have an idea for an art project I might do with it, too. All that jumble sparks my imagination.

I love seeing the progress that people have shared on social media following Halfway Day and the creative ways they’ve interpreted the Happiness Trifecta (one-word theme, 23 for ‘23 list, and the Go Outside 23 in ‘23 challenge).

Here’s a new distinction I’m starting to ponder: From my observation, some people often experience themselves from the outside, as if they were a character in a novel or movie. For instance, in her essay “No Place Like Home,” Nancy Franklin writes:

When I rode up in my elevator…I always became flooded by a melancholy vanity, as if I were being watched through a hidden camera. “Here is a young woman living in New York. It’s the end of the day, and she’s going home to her apartment.” To me, my self-conscious weariness was cinematic and fascinating. It made me feel like an adult.

However, I almost never experience that feeling myself. How about you? I’m not sure what it means, but it’s interesting.

In college, I read Stendhal’s On Love, and I’ve never forgotten this passage—which, I realize now, beautifully evokes the senses: “You hear a traveler speaking of the cool orange groves beside the sea at Genoa in the summer heat: Oh, if you could only share that coolness with her!”

Updates

• If you’d like to establish a writing routine or set aside more time for creativity, join this month’s two-week Habit Jump-Start in the Happier™ app. Week one provides tips to help you to map out how, what, when, and why you want to write. Week two offers quick prompts to help you get going. It’s free to participate and starts this Sunday, July 16th.
  
  
• Next week, I’ll be joining my old friend Jonathan Fields, renowned host of The Good Life Project podcast, for a LinkedIn Live event where we’ll explore the surprising connections between our five senses and our work life. Join us on July 17 at 11:15 AM PT / 2:15 PM ET and RSVP here.

Featured

ARTICLE

Lessons Learned from Halfway Day

PODCAST

More Happier: More Strength and Stamina, a New Metaphor for “Empty Nest,” and an Easy Way to Keep a Journal