How to maintain your happiness: 4 Simple Ways to Remember Joy. Preserve your most precious family memories and happy life moments with DIY inspiration. Enjoy reliving little bursts of everyday joy and bliss for years to come!

Life is not made up of the days that have passed, but rather the days that we remember. And of course, we’d like them to be moments of happiness! Wouldn’t you agree?

Happiness is what most people strive for. And we all have these moments, but do we know how to remember them? Good question…

I really want to share my personal methods for preserving happiness, but first I suggest you do a little daydreaming!

Isn’t That Happiness?

Imagine – your long-awaited vacation has finally arrived and you’ve traveled to Greece with your whole family…

It’s the middle of a hot summer day, the sun is beating down relentlessly, so you’ve decided not to go to the beach for the time being, but rather to rest here in the shade of a lounge chair in your small but very nice boutique hotel at the foot of Mount Olympus.

From time to time you can hear the quiet voices of restaurant guests on the veranda, and the wind brings an amazing scent of lavender that grows along the garden paths around the hotel.

Your children splash happily in the pool, that long-awaited book lies beside you, and your husband simply holds your hand and looks tenderly at you. He knows how much you need this break and just lets you relax without taking care of the kids (he can do it himself) and melt into bliss…

And it’s so nice to feel free of all your usual worries – no need to cook, work, clean up, write reports, go shopping… Just rest and relaxation!

Suddenly, you remember that you’re going to see some waterfalls tomorrow, and with a blissful smile, you close your eyes in anticipation of the beauty and freshness to come. And when you open them again, you see the branches of a huge sycamore tree above you, carefully and reliably protecting you from the scorching sun. And the wind continues to bathe you in cool freshness, ruffling the little leaves high above and carrying a whiff of lavender…

And a thought crosses your mind – “My God, it’s just so beautiful!!!” And at that very moment, you feel a surge of happiness! And you wish so much that this moment would last forever!

Moments of Happiness

We all have such moments, right?

What’s more, these bits of happiness can suddenly appear amidst the most ordinary things – for example, you might melt at the sight out your window of your husband walking your little one to kindergarten hand in hand… Or your heart might fill with joy at the sound of your mom’s cheerful laugh (even though her leg has been hurting terribly for months)… Or pride for your son who finally managed to tie his shoelaces all by himself for the first time…

I sincerely believe that every single day brings us hundreds of reasons for tiny joys. And when we learn to be grateful, these moments increase exponentially.

Even a simple sunbeam in the morning can bring tremendous happiness!

You see, it just comes to you so unexpectedly. And conversely, when you prepare yourself and expect that this is when things will get truly amazing, more often than not those surges don’t come…

Yes, happiness itself chooses the moments when it comes to us!

And I so want to preserve these moments in memory. So that later, years later, I can delight in each and every one (even the very smallest) piece of the puzzle that makes up my enormous lifetime happiness.

Everything Gets Forgotten…

But the crux is that everything gets forgotten… No matter how we might resist, no matter how hard we might try – it all fades to the back of our memory…

Of course, smells can randomly trigger vivid memories– for instance, catching a whiff of lavender somewhere – and suddenly that wonderful day in Greece appears clear as day. But such sudden memory flashes don’t come all that often, and not always of our own accord!

So here are several methods that have helped me preserve my happy moments! I’ll share my favorites, but would also love to read about your tricks as well – sound good? I look forward to your comments on how you manage to capture your joyful moments!

4 Ways to Remember Your Happy Moments

1. Notes in a Jar

Yes, such a simple, sweet way! Basically anytime a swell of happiness comes over you and you realize “I want to remember this minute forever when I’m old and sitting by the fireplace,” you can quickly jot down a few words on a little slip of paper.

Chances are that tiny piece of paper won’t fit a whole story about that happy minute, so I write down key points. For instance, I’d summarize that day in Greece as: Greece, pool, sycamore, N’s hand, lavender.

And be sure to put the date! Later it’s so fun to figure out when exactly it was and how old we were back then…

Then simply roll up the paper into a little scroll and toss it in a jar along with all your other happy scrolls.

2. Happiness Diary

This method also smacks of old-fashionedness, just like the last one! Of course nowadays we could replace it all with modern technology, but…

First of all, writing by hand is more pleasant. Second, years later it’s nicer to open, unfold and read – it becomes a ritual! Thirdly, phones, tablets and other gadgets get lost, and the information on them (even if it’s stored somewhere else) gets drowned out by everything else…

So I prefer to write down my happy moments in a special, beautiful notebook dedicated to this purpose – a kind of happiness diary.

And this is where you can let your writing talents run wild! You can write whole stories, mini prose, etc. But I still tend to stick to short blurbs like the one at the beginning of this article. After all, there will be quite a few of them over time – I don’t want reading to become a chore!

3. Themed Photo Books

We all have fancy cell phones these days, with great cameras and thousands, hundreds of thousands of photos… Even if we suddenly transfer them somewhere and (wonder of wonders!) organize them into themed folders, tell me honestly – “How often do you actually look through them?”

And answer honestly!

99% of the time the answer will be – NEVER!

Yes, these repositories of memories are bursting at the seams and yet they are completely deserted because no one ever goes there…

So I came up with a solution for myself – I make photo books (mixbook, for example)! By theme – usually traveling! Or all the important pictures of my son up to the age of 5. Or just documenting our past year (all the hangouts, trips, funny moments, etc.).

Of course, this requires some effort up front, especially in selecting the photos – that’s really the biggest headache (since pretty much every shot seems profoundly valuable!).

But then, years later, when you open one up and start flipping through it, you are flooded with warm memories. And I have to admit that even my husband, who at first dismissed these photo books as just my hobby (not to say “eccentricity”!) and never took a look at them, now periodically sneaks a peek when the kids and I settle down on the couch to flip through our lives together!

4. “Happiness in Seconds” Movie

Funny, isn’t it, how little a second is? Right? But it turns out that even in those tiny intervals you can pack a lot of meaning, warmth and memories.

Nowadays, there are many apps that create a short movie out of your “seconds of happiness”. But the best one I think is 1 Second Everyday Journal. It can simply be a series of photos or even 1-second clips. Yes, even 1-second videos can capture the essence of a happy moment in your life!

Then the app splices them all together into a single video! And voila! Your whole year (or vacation) – in one video!

Even better, these apps can remind you to record daily (if that’s the frequency you choose) – so you don’t forget. How thoughtful!

So, by shooting these tiny 1-second clips every day, at the end of the year you have a complete overview of the past year (and the final video is only a few minutes long).

Can you imagine? Watch for 3 minutes – and soak up every single joyful moment of reunions, long-awaited get-togethers, laughter, walks, trips, visits and simply happy times from the WHOLE year! Isn’t that magical?

Those are my tricks for preserving and remembering all (or at least most!) of our little moments of happiness!

I hope some of these also appeal to you – and you too will implement them in your life!

And of course, I also want to learn YOUR hacks! How do you capture your joyful moments? I await them in the comments!

Wishing you joy and happiness!
Sofi