Recently I was wandering around a craft store, and being a sucker for colored paper of all kinds, I spotted on one of those little hanging racks on the end of an aisle a smallish pad of thick colored paper, maybe about 3 X 5. It reminded me at the time of a prescription pad (is that still a thing?). I wasn’t sure what I’d do with it but I was sure it was supposed to come home with me.
Later in the week I heard Gretchen Rubin on her Happier podcast talking about an Audio Apothecary – essentially a playlist to lift your mood. That word “apothecary” really appealed to me. Still later, the word “alchemy” popped up in two very different things I was reading. Finally, when I was feeling a little overwhelmed from some work issues mostly out of my control and journaling to try to work through some stuff, it all kind of came together. I needed to write a prescription for myself to lift me out of my stuck place But, prescription sounded a bit too sterile and pharmaceutical, so I thought perhaps I needed an elixir. Or maybe a spell? I’m still deciding which I like better. Either way, the plan was to craft my own apothecary to give myself a boost of Demand the Shimmer magic.
I grabbed that colored paper pad and wrote myself a spell. It included things to do, ways to breathe and move, songs to hear, things to consume, things to say. Since then, I have made one for bravery (something I really needed to tap more into), sleep, energy, transitioning into vacation mode, and transitioning back to home.
I talk a lot about ritual in these blogs, and this overlaps with ritual in some ways, but I think it’s a little different in that these are really quick to do, a bit silly, and have this tongue-in-cheek nod to magic and playfulness.
I often find that my social-scientist brain and my joyful-goofball spirit to get into tussles with one another. In fact, that was one of the reasons it took me a couple of years to create this blog and then five years to go from first publishing it to finally telling people about it. A lot of this stuff I come up with when I’m wearing my Demand the Shimmer hat seems at first at odds with what I know about researching and testing happiness interventions as a scientist. But are they really so disparate?
Maybe not. Here’s what I’m thinking:
- I really enjoyed reading Gretchen Rubin’s book Life in Five Senses last year, and have been working on ways of both noticing how I use all my senses each day and trying to purposefully use them more. She discusses several sources of research on these benefits. An older and gorgeously written book about the senses is Diane Ackerman’s A Natural History of the Senses. My elixirs utilize a multitude of senses.
- Even though I know I the particular combination of things I’m doing/hearing/consuming etc. is just something I made up, (a) the individual things range from harmless/enjoyable to evidence-based efficacious (e.g., breathing exercises), and (b) placebos can have real effects in some cases if you choose to believe they will work.
- There is a growing body of research on the many benefits of play for adults in a variety of disciplines, and several practical books on introducing more play into your life. A favorite of mine is an interactive workbook I received as a gift one year; it’s called Play: Ideas, Exercises, and Little Ways to Add More Fun to Everyday by M.H. Clark. To me, making up magical spells absolutely fits the bill of playfulness.
- These spells are essentially a checklist; accomplishing an entire checklist is one mechanism for producing feelings of efficacy and accomplishment in many people, me included. It has been pointed out to me that my name is even List if you change one letter!
Okay, if that all sold you on this – would you like to create your own apothecary? Or maybe just try one spell/elixir? Here are some steps to get you started:
- First, think of a state you would like to create. Is it sleep, energy, joy, something else?
- Next, think about ways to use at least 3-4, but ideally all five, of your main senses in a way that typically helps with that state. For example, what sounds would be helpful? What could you touch or feel or how could you move to make that more available to you?
- Add some element of whimsy.
- I have found I like to end it with saying something out loud – it sort of acts as an affirmation. Yes, people make fun of those, but check out Jon Acuff’s book Soundtracks for a hot take on affirmations. The speaking out loud also seems to make it more like a Hogwarts-esque spell. No wand though. Yet.
Joy