The joy that gets to stay – noticing, savoring and sharing
Joy is strange in the way we often long for it – and then hurry past it when it actually arrives. A laugh. Sun on the face. Someone writing at exactly the moment we needed it. A cup of coffee that tastes unusually good.
Mama Wynja carries joy already in its name. For me, it is not a demand to be happy. It is more like a small door that sometimes opens in the middle of everyday life.
And perhaps we do not need to create more joy all the time. Perhaps sometimes we simply need to stay long enough to notice the joy that already came.
Let joy stay
A short ritual for noticing something good, giving the moment a little more room and sharing it onward if you want to.
To the ritual →Letting a good moment last a little longer
In positive psychology, the word savoring is used for ways of noticing and appreciating positive experiences while they happen, when we remember them or when we look forward to them.
It does not need to be dramatic. You can pause after a laugh and actually feel what it feels like. Look a little longer at the evening light. Tell someone why a small thing made you happy.
A new systematic review of randomised studies suggests that savoring exercises can strengthen positive emotions and wellbeing, but as with much wellbeing research, effects vary between people and situations.
Joy does not need to become bigger. It can simply become more seen.
You do not need to be grateful for everything
Gratitude exercises have become so common that they sometimes sound like one more thing we are supposed to succeed at. Write three things. Think positive. See the beautiful.
The research is more nuanced. A large meta-analysis found small average improvements in wellbeing from gratitude interventions, with clear variation between contexts and people.
That also means gratitude does not need to be used to minimise grief, anger or injustice. You can be sad and still appreciate that the sun came out. The two do not need to compete.
Notice → stay → share
The good can grow when it gets a witness
Researchers sometimes use the term capitalization for the process of sharing positive events with others. Studies have connected responsive receiving of good news with, among other things, greater perceived closeness and better relationship wellbeing.
There is something very human in it. “Do you know what happened?” And then someone who actually lights up with us.
Sharing joy does not mean everything has to become social. But if you have a safe person: sometimes let the beautiful have a witness too – not only the difficult.
You do not need to force it
There are periods when joy feels far away. Grief, depression, stress, exhaustion or simply a truly bad week do not disappear because we light a yellow candle.
This practice is therefore not about replacing the difficult with something “positive”. If you cannot find joy today, let the ritual instead become an exercise in finding something that feels a little less heavy: the warmth of the shower, the dog’s fur, five minutes without demands.
And if nothing feels good, you do not need to make that wrong.
Joy and belonging
Mama Wynja’s name is inspired by Wunjo/Wynja – a symbol that within the brand carries joy, harmony and belonging.
That is why joy here does not only mean laughter. It can also be the feeling of belonging. Being with people where the body relaxes. Creating something. Playing. Giving something beautiful and seeing it land with someone else.
Joy can be loud. But it can also be very still.
With warmth,
Amelia · Mama Wynja
Give the good a few more minutes
Choose one small joy, stay with it through the senses and let it live on in an action, a symbol or a message to someone you care about.
To the Let Joy Stay ritual →