Adding more JOY to life

Happy new year! I cannot believe it is 2026! This is a year I have been looking forward to as I graduate college and my sister graduates high school! It's going to be an amazing year!

Last night, as the ball was dropping on my TV, I spent my time creating my vision board for 2026. I cut and pasted some photos, added the year, a song, a color, and my one word intention...JOY. For me, a one word intention is how I make choices, what is defining the action in the moment. I ask myself, "Will this bring me more or less joy?"

In doing this, I also journaled a list of ways I will be adding more JOY to life. It's fun, whimsical, and a bit silly, but I think you will find that you can take some pieces of it for yourself. You can turn it into your own list of joyful things to add in 2026. Because who doesn't want a joyful year?

My silly little (actually quite long) list of JOY

• Wear more glittery eyeshadow

• Take solo adventures (even through the scaries)

• Go on bestie adventures (full of laughter)

• Lie outside and notice the shapes of the clouds

• Wear my apricot vanilla perfume

• Try fun hairstyles (even if they don't turn out)

• Find joyous things in the mundane of life

• Arrange flower bouquets for myself

• Light a scented candle when cleaning (like my new pineapple one)

• Use stickers whenever and wherever I can

• Write penpal letters often

• Listen to the birds when I wake up

• Leave little sticky note messages for strangers

• Compliment people! Strangers too!

• Listen to uplifting music while driving

• Try new and fun foods monthly!

• Start reading poetry books

• Watercolor at the beach

• Pizza picnic at the beach!

• Bake treats for friends and family (use sprinkles of course)

• Sing while gardening (it could help the plants grow?)

• Invent a new holiday (We must wear pink too)

• Reread Heidi! (A classic I loved as a kid)

• Host themed nights with friends just for the fun of it

• Read in a cafe/coffee shop

• Dream journal more often

• Drink more tea! (with my pinky up of course)

• Keep a list of joyful things that happened

• Celebrate the little wins in life

• Reread my favorite books <3

• Take fun photos without a care for who's watching

• Know that hard times will come but there is joy seeped in somewhere, I just have to find it.

I hope you write your own list of joy for the new year! Or you write a list for your own one word intention! Let's have a joyful, whimsical, and loving new year! All my love,

Brooklyn.