Welcome to the Anxiety Slayer series. Our mission is to assist you with creating more peace and

tranquility in your life through anxiety release exercises and supportive tools created

to slay your anxiety.

Every now and again when I become overwhelmed with life and the never ending pile of responsibilities, I remind myself of a simple exercise that I created years ago called Joy Spotting. It's a wonderful way to get back to center and to remember what's truly important.

To be mindful of the present moment

and involves nothing more than taking a look around and making a mental note of the places, things, people, in your environment that bring you joy. So I simply call it joy spotting.

And if you're in a place where you're feeling completely overcome and need a quick fix,

something that will snap you out of it. Joy spotting can be that process.

Examples of Joy spotting include a brand new birds nest in a tree

or some ducks that come to visit the yard that you haven't seen before the laughter of a child or the beauty of fresh flowers could be the kindness

that somebody shows you at the market.

Nothing's too big and nothing's too small.

It's just a matter of keying in and recording,

making a mental recording, or even if you'd like,

a journal of your joy spotting. I recommend that you

begin by keying in on five things that bring you joy each day and then if you're interested you can grow the list from there.

And then if you're interested, you can grow the list from there.

One of the things that my family and I like to do,

whether we're feeling overwhelmed or not,

is at the dinner table we share the five best things that happened in our day.

So that's very similar to Joy Spotting.

And it allows us to similar to

...