A Simple Hack to Reduce Stress AND Bring Joy

Those who know me will not be surprised when I say this: play, fun and joy are values of mine. In many ways, these values are linked and what they bring me is an immeasurable sense of lightness, frivolity, peace and restoration.

While these values are core to my being, there have been times in my life when I have lost connection with them. The irony is that the times when I’ve lost connection to these values are actually when I’ve needed their anchor and support the most: when I’ve been stressed, during periods of overwhelm or when I’ve been feeling overly-fatigued. When any of these – stress, overwhelm, fatigue – are present, my inclination is to focus on another value of mine, one that I call “self-care”. 

Self-care, for me, is a double-edged sword at times. I am very skilled at knowing when I need to slow down, to rest, to take care of all of me. The “knowing” of self-care isn’t the issue. The issue at hand is that I have historically limited my perception of what constitutes self-care. I tend to gravitate toward eating healthfully, increasing my focus on rest, exercising more, being mindful, slowing down. I think most people would say that I’ve got the self-care thing down pat. 

But here’s the thing: a critical part of self-care, one that doesn’t get named all that often, is to live life in alignment with one’s values; not just select values, but ALL of them. In other words, when I hold my value of self-care as separate from all of my other values – like play, fun and joy – there’s a way that I’m not actually caring for all of me. And that leads to ineffective results. 

Having had this a-ha last week – having realized that I was neglecting a core set of values, even though I was honouring another – I decided I needed a structure for bringing more play, joy and fun into my consciousness. As I pondered what that structure might be, and through a coaching experience in a course I was leading, I decided to act on an urge that I’ve been ignoring for a long time (like, for years). I went out and bought myself a bubble machine!

I have always wanted a bubble machine; the one I got is a tiny one (I can hold it in the palm of one hand), but it’s colourful and it works beautifully. When I turn it on, it spews out a myriad of bubbles and as it turns out, bubbles make me exceedingly happy! 

As I sat with my feet in the grass in the backyard, and watched as the bubbles floated around my space with such lightness, I was reminded of what it’s like to be childlike. I was struck by how my sense of tension and stress dissipated. And I remembered that years ago, in what seems like another life, when I was the Children’s Advocate at our local women’s shelter, blowing bubbles with the children in shelter was one of the ways we would help those kiddos learn to release stress. Because you can’t blow bubbles without engaging in a deep inhale and exhale. 

Now, a bubble machine doesn’t require me to engage in that sort of deep breathing. But it turns out that watching the bubbles float around was enough to ground me, ro connect me to the visceral experience of inhaling and exhaling; it also brought a smile to my face, and overall, it allowed me to feel connected to play, fun and joy, all in equal measure.

Bottom-line: it turns out that having a bubble machine is a life hack that allows me to stay connected to some core values in a really simple way, while simultaneously reducing stress. I don’t know if a bubble machine will work for you as well; what I do believe is that it’s worth a try. And if bubbles aren’t your thing, I would challenge you to find a structure of some sort, any sort, that allows you to effortlessly connect to the things that matter. Because the core lesson for me here is this: when I’m connected to my values – ALL of my values – there’s a way that my stress decreases, and I would love for you to find your way to feel less stress as well.