My favorite things do not match the song lyrics in “The Sound of Music,” but I would like to know if we identify, think about, and do our favorite things often enough. What are your favorite things?

Gratitude, thankfulness, and appreciation are vast elements of mental wellness, and we need to know our favorite things and choose them more often. Like all of life, what we think about grows—focus on what we like and love, and gratitude will increase exponentially.

There is a challenge to what I just wrote. If your favorite things include hours in a recliner, foods loaded with fat, salt, and sugar, and daily marathon screen time (TV, computer, or phone), your favorite things are likely damaging your overall wellness—mental and physical.

Hopefully, our favorite things include nature, movement, learning, hobbies, playfulness, and human connection–things that add joy to daily life.

Joy is a nice word. Joy does not negatively impact my mental health. Joy comes from knowing and choosing my favorite people, activities, food, conversations, humor, and authenticity. Think about times you felt joyful. Let that help you identify your favorite things.

It’s like losing weight to improve physical health: if we consistently make little changes, the weight comes off slowly and becomes sustainable without much effort. The same is true with our favorite things—they contribute to joyful moments—the more you choose, the more your eyes sparkle.

Joy doesn’t come in oversized packages with high-dollar price tags. It comes from within. It’s a gift from knowing who we are and choosing what we enjoy as often as possible. It’s saying  “no” when we don’t want to do something and saying “yes” when we do. It’s helping others, sharing our gifts, and communicating—saying the words and listening.

Mental health seems like an abstract entity that happens TO us. It’s not. It is concrete and possible.  Finding and choosing our favorite things is just one simple way to nourish our ability to attain and maintain positivity.

Imagine the benefits if our favorite things are simple and we surround ourselves with them as often as possible.

I can’t help but think of the people in war-torn countries or people recovering from natural disasters. Interviews on TV with survivors show me the depth of people’s ability to find tiny nuggets of hope to continue and not give up. I know if they can, we can.

If they can still stand after loved ones are killed, or when a house foundation is the remains of everything they own, we can rise, too.

Remember this message as we breathe through the coming week of politics. Vote and then turn to your favorite things.

Until the next time: Live while you live.

Jennifer Goble, Ph.D., LPC, is the author of “My Clients…My Teachers,” and the blogger and writer of Rural Women Stories: www.ruralwomenstories.com.

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