5 Simple Shortcuts to Happiness

What I do daily for inner well-being

It might sound strange, but I am grateful for the way the pandemic has changed my world. When the world closed up and locked down, life receded to my fingertips. I could no longer deny and distract myself from my unhappiness at home. I no longer had escapes and plans, which meant that I had to learn how to be okay with my own company, what I truly valued, and find other ways to inner peace.

Here are those shortcuts.

1. Daily creative free time.

I feel like my truest and best self when I am creating — whether that means experimenting in the kitchen and whipping up a sheet cake, or turning veggies from the garden into savory herb fritters, or learning how to play guitar (at the ripe old age of 43), or my morning writing, or turning a drab old wooden tv cabinet that I found on the street corner into a clay vine-and-rose -embellished turquoise focal piece.

Here’s why: Spending time pursuing something creative each day tells your brain that we are not yet done learning and that we value growth. It conditions us to prioritize ourselves and the things that interest us. Using creative thinking spurs more creativity, which can be applied in multiple ways: when cooking (what flavors do you want to combine?), building a fence around your…