Henry David Thoreau said, “That man is rich whose pleasures are the cheapest.”
One of the things that I fell in love with when I first went to France was the appreciation and the enjoyment of life’s simple pleasures. I think about my dear friends who live in Antibes in the south of France, they have such a simple lifestyle and yet, it’s so rich.
I think about the times that we’ve sat in their backyard under a grape vine just sipping a glass of wine and talking for hours with beautiful cheeses, amazing food, and music playing in the background, and our laughter.
There is a fear about what is happening right now, especially the fear of losing jobs, or losing money in the stock market. And I was thinking about, what if we all lost everything; the material things of life?
What would we be left with? We’d be left with life’s simple pleasures; the things that actually can bring so much joy to our everyday. Now, I don’t think we are the types of people that are going to lose everything. But what if we lost all of the big things?
For me, what if I lost the ability to be able to travel to France or to go anywhere? What if I lost the ability to have Netflix or some of the little extras of life? I would still be left with life’s simple pleasures. And when I think about what I enjoy most about life, of course, you all know I love beautiful clothes; I love travel, I love going to Europe and staying for an extended amount of time. But if I didn’t have a chance to do that, I would still be happy because, when I think about what I truly enjoy, it’s the little moments of every single day that cost me very little or nothing at all. For example, a cup of coffee in the morning. I don’t know about you all, but I go to bed at night thinking about my cup of coffee the next morning. And I have my little Chemex coffee maker, my little pour over. It’s such a ritual for me that I get so much pleasure from.
The other thing for me is music. I love music. I have it playing all of the time, generally, there’s always music playing in the house and it just fills me with such a good feeling. There are my dogs. You all, I can just look at their faces and just feel so much joy. In the evenings, our tradition this time of the year, because we live on a lake, is to go down to the lake and they swim. I just literally sit there and throw sticks and I’m with my dogs and I’m happy.
The other thing for me is to go sit outside on a sunny day and just sit in the sun reading a book. I love books. Life’s simple pleasures. Feeling that sun on my face fills me with such a warm feeling. It’s so simple and yet so rich and so beautiful. My baths at night, I look forward to those at night, just the way I look forward to my coffee in the morning. And then I’m sitting there and I’m like, “Oh my goodness, I have warm water. How amazing is that?” Do you know how there are people in the world who don’t even have water? And here I am sitting in a bath full of warm water. It’s crazy when we stop and really think about it.
And then I think about my friends, being able to call them and laugh until my belly hurts. Simple pleasures. Lighting a candle and smelling that in my home all day. It’s such a little act that doesn’t seem like a lot, but every time I can smell that aroma, I’m just so full of joy.
Thinking about my friends in Antibes again, they don’t have a lot of money. But I guarantee you that they live a life richer than most. They live on the port in Antibes and so it’s not unusual for them to just walk out of their front door and go and take a dip in the sea. It costs them nothing. And then they’ll come back and they have such a huge community of friends, they have weekend barbeques, so simple, yet so many of us don’t take the time for those simple pleasures because we’re always chasing something else. And then when something like a pandemic comes along and our “something else” is threatened, we start to feel like life has lost its meaning. We start to spin in fear and worry and anxiety. And I say this often, but I am all about creating our dreams. I think it’s fun. I think it’s exciting to see what we’re capable of creating in a lifetime. And if you’re someone that wants lots of money, I’m all for it. I’m like, “Let’s go do it.” But I don’t think that life is better over there than it is right here. And if
you’re failing to really appreciate the simple pleasures in life, how are you going to
really appreciate the big things in life?
Years ago, I started to think about that. What if I did lose my company? What if I did lose my money? What if something terrible happened and I’m just alone with me?”
I always feel like I would have the ability to generate some income. I’ve figured out, like I said earlier, we’re ambitious, we’ll figure it out. But I was like, “Okay, the worst thing that I could envision for myself is that I end up in an RV by a river.” It’s the whole, like, “She’s living by a river,” story.
But then I’m like, is that so bad? Actually, no. I’d be by a river. I’d have a bed. I’d be able to catch some fish, hopefully. I think I’d be able to go to the store as well and pick up some things. I’d have books. I’d have my dogs. I would have my simple pleasures. I would have music. I’d have that sunshine. I’m sure I would have friends over and we would sit on little lawn chairs watching the river flow by.
We would appreciate the simple pleasures. And it would be beautiful. And you
know why? Because I would make it beautiful. I want to make my life beautiful no
matter what. And enjoying the simple pleasures is a part of creating that.
For years, I have talked about enjoying the little luxuries that are always available in our everyday life. And now more than ever, I think it is so important. And let me tell you why.
Number one, most of us are living in fight or flight. We are in sympathetic overdrive with our nervous system. We are cranking out cortisol. We’re burning our adrenals out. We need to enjoy our everyday lives so much more. And I’ve noticed that I’m actually more productive when I’m taking time for the simple pleasures. Now, a lot of times, we don’t do this because we think we don’t have the time for it and that it’s just superficial and it doesn’t really help.
But I started to think about this and asked the question, what if simple pleasures are the key to better productivity? And I came across this study that was done by a psychologists who had 122 participants in this study to see how simple pleasures affected their goal achievement.
What they discovered is that on the days that had very few simple pleasures, that it ate away at their goal progress. And then, in contrast, on the days where people experienced a high number of simple pleasures, they stuck to their goals. They were able to make progress. Why? Because simple pleasures create positive emotions. And positive emotions are key to progressing towards our goals.
So many times, I wonder, why are so many of us just rushing around trying to get
to the next thing, checking off that to-do list and running ourselves ragged? And do you know why? Because we want to feel better. And we think that by rushing through life and getting to that next goal, we're going to feel better. I want you to really think about this. Why are you in such a rush? Why are you always trying to get so much done? Do you ever even stop and ask yourself why?And what it’s costing you? And do you even like your reason for what you’re
doing?
Again, this is not a discouragement of going after your dreams. I mean, come on, we have this one life. I think it’s fun to see what we are capable of creating, but not at your own expense. And what if – just what if – enjoying the simple pleasures of life are the key to creating what it is that you want? I do not see one downside to enjoying life’s simple pleasures. The only thing I see is the upside, the benefits, how it will bring the joy back into your everyday. It will bring you a little bit of relief. It will help you to make your days more beautiful. You’ll start to feel better, again, by the simplest of pleasures. I want you to be curious about what your simple pleasures are, because it looks different for all of us. You might not enjoy coffee. Maybe for you, it’s meditation in the morning. Maybe for you it’s a cup of tea. But I want you to be curious about what brings you pleasure; the simple things. And I want you to commit to taking time out for those things.
The next time you’re feeling rushed and you’re running the story that you’re
overwhelmed and you’re never going to get it done, what if instead of trying to get
more done, you took a break, you pressed pause, and you enjoyed a simple pleasure?
My experience is that you would tap into the beauty and the abundance and the joy of this moment. And you’ll still get it done. But you’ll have so much more fun doing it.
