The Art Of Finding Hope Every Day

Add joy to your daily scrolling.

Hello! :) I’m Nospheratt, and this is Joy Every Week;
a weekly quest to find joy in everyday things.

Last week, we worked on managing our doomscrolling:

How do we find joy at the other side?

Using the time and space left for things you enjoy and add to your life, in place of things that waste away your patience and your health.

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When you’re trying to quit a bad habit — whatever it is — the change will create an empty space in your day to day. One of the key strategies to avoid relapsing is to replace the bad habit with another activity, something that will help with your goal.

Having something else to focus on makes it way easier to stay the course and actually make the change you want.

For example: vaping finally allowed me to quit smoking, because instead of relying on my will power (a strategy that failed many times) I turned to the vape every time I wanted to smoke. I gradually reduced the nicotine in my vape until I got to 0%. Nowadays I vape occasionally, when in the past I’d smoke constantly, every day.

Is it perfect? No.

But progress is better than perfect, always.
Because perfect doesn’t exist, while progress gets us to a new place. A better place.

It’s also important to have something you can turn to, when the inevitable impulse to do the thing you’re trying to stop doing creeps up — because it will, and it won’t be easy to resist. You may not even realize at first that you’re reaching for a mindless scroll, until you blink and an hour has passed.

Don’t beat yourself up when that happens. It’s part of the process, part of being human. Just try again. It’s alright. You’ll get there. 🙂

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This Week’s Quest - The Joy Of Finding Hope Every Day

Ideas & inspiration to find your joy.

1 - Add Hope

We tend to forget, but there are positive news to be read. There’s hope to be found.

We just need to look for it a little harder, since doom gets more coverage and promotion.

Find some sources that you like, and subscribe to them and their social media. Make lists or set up notifications for them so the good stuff is always there when you need it, and you can see it mixed with the doom news.

I enjoy Positive News’ What went right this week - a weekly dose of “Not everything’s lost and some things are actually better!”

Other favorites:

• Good Good Good

• Reasons to be Cheerful

• Happy Eco News

You can find even more options here: 12 Best Good News Websites To Leave You More Hopeful. Or google “positive news + <whatever interests you>”, like “positive news climate” or positive news LGBTQ+”.

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2 - Enjoy Your Hobbies & Interests

From writing and crafts to fishing and beekeeping, there’s an abundance of people, sites and newsletters for you to follow, learn more and have fun.

Instagram is the prime example of this — I’m always in awe of the cool stuff people share there every day. The vintage books & library accounts are just amazing.

Yes, it takes a bit of effort to separate the joy from the empty marketing, but once you find a few interesting accounts, it’s pure happiness to scroll.

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3 - Inspiration Library

Something that works very well not only for hope and joy but for everything in your life is to collect sources of inspiration, either in a general sense, or for things that are important to you; stuff you’re working on, goals you’re hoping to achieve.

Daily encouragement and examples of people that made the thing you’re trying to make, and how they got there, are enormously helpful and motivating.

Just avoid the people that push your comparison buttons. You want inspiration & motivation, not sources of anxiety.

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4 - Morning Reads

Things you can read or watch as soon as you reach for your phone, that will set you up right to start the day.

I use Feedly for this one.

I’ve been a RSS reader since the Google Reader days.¹ It’s the easiest way to access content from different sources in one central place.

I have a “Morning” folder where I add all the inspiring & good news sources, so I can fill myself with good things before the day gets going.

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5 - Night Wind Down

What can you do to wind down and relax before bed or right before going to sleep?

I’m not going to tell you to leave your phone somewhere else or turn it off - I don’t know anybody who’d actually do that.

But we can choose to use it to enhance our rest, instead of disrupting it.

• Use blue filter!

• Listen to nature sounds.

• Or audiobooks, or sleep stories.

• Read books.

• Watch relaxing videos.

Don’t play addictive games - the ones that engage your dopamine rewards and make you want to keep going indefinitely. Look for relaxing, soothing games.

6 - Share!

We tend to share a lot of the horrifying and enraging news we come across — which can be cathartic and sometimes works as a way to increase awareness about specific issues.

(Be aware that’s not always the case, however. The people in our circles usually have the same beliefs and ways of thinking as us; so sharing outrageous news tend to be more preaching to the choir + spreading misery than anything else.)

So let’s try to remember to share good stuff, too. Positive news. Hopeful updates. Cool things. Even if it seems nobody cares — it’s way easier to get attention about negative stuff, I know — sprinkling good things among the doomscroll is helpful for everyone, including yourself.

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📚Reads

➡️ 10 Ideas to Ponder: Summer Edition

I’ve come to think that vulnerability doesn’t necessarily always mean sharing your pain with others. It seems everyone is writing about their traumas and painful life experiences on the internet these days. Myself included; No judgment. But I’m starting to wonder if the scariest form of vulnerability isn’t sharing our most painful experiences, but rather our most joyful ones. Why does joy feel so vulnerable? Why does joy feel so scary to so many of us? Why has it become easier to share our pain than our joy? Why has sharing our pains and traumas become the only ways to feel connected to others (i.e. trauma bonding)? What might happen if we’re able to connect with others through our joys? Through celebration?

➡️ You Don’t Need to Post About Every Tragedy

In a world of so many traumas and terrors, I am desperate for silence. It is not escapism, not always. It is about meeting oneself. The way you might encounter yourself in the silence of, say, journaling, is distinct from how you reflect in the public arena. In silence, a certain veil is lifted. We might realize that the rage we feel in public is born from fear or despair in private. Healing is a very quiet thing. In the silence, we can wrap our wounds. There are times when taking shelter is a noble thing to do.

➡️ What do you mean "it's 7 weeks until Launch Week"??

The very first dream Robin T had when creating SmallStack was to host a library full of great, small stacks, just like yours. Similar to your local public library, you could walk through (virtually), find collections of great work by category, and even check out some staff picks. Substack is a tough place to get noticed. It’s full of thousands of writers, and it can be challenging to find great reads or for you to find the right audience for your work. The SmallStack Library is meant to help foster those connections in the community between creator and admirer.

I’m part of the volunteer team at SmallStack - an awesome project/community you should definitely check out. We’re getting ready for opening the library, and many cool things are happening. Come join us!

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That’s It For Today!

Thank you for being here. I’m so glad we’re doing this together. <3 And happy scrolling! :)

Until next time. —Nospheratt

1. Holy shit² it’s been 11 years?!