Feeling Delightful: A Guide to Your Emotions

PUBLISHED May 14th, 2021 & UPDATED ON Nov 21st, 2022

The sun? Shining. The birds? Singing. Your mood? Delightful! Feeling delightful is simply the best! Why don’t we talk about this feeling more? It’s not that we WANT to be Negative Nellies, but it can be hard to find moments of joy when you’re under a lot of stress, or just aren’t feeling that happy overall. It’s time we recognize those moments of delight where we can, ‘cause they’re so underrated!

So, how does feeling delightful tie in with our mental wellbeing? Wow, great question! And we’ve got answers for you. So, let’s dive thru feeling delightful, how it shows up and how it’s linked to our mental health.

A Deeper Look at Feeling Delightful

Deeee-lightful. Not a word we use often, huh? It’s kinda fancy for everyday use. As in, it sounds like a response you’d get from an 83-year-old British grandmother after asking how her cup of tea is. Why it’s delightful, my dear! You get the idea.

But what does it mean to FEEL delightful, exactly? Dictionary.com defines delightful as “adj. giving great pleasure or delight; highly pleasing.” Okay, taking pleasure in something. That makes sense. We’ve all (hopefully) felt this emotion before!

There are sooo many things in life that can make us feel delightful, even the little things like getting a massage after a stressful week and feeling all of those knots and aches melt away. Ordering a pizza ‘cause you just don’t feel like cooking after the day you’ve had. Receiving a super sweet card on your birthday. Cracking a joke that everyone laughs at (‘cause you’re a comedic genius). Or, petting an adorbs lil’ puppy. See what we mean?! There’s delight to be found around every corner!

If you’re not really sure what makes you feel delightful, that’s okay! Sometimes we get busy, and we don’t make enough time for ourselves to do things we actuallyyy enjoy. But it’s so important to explore what brings you joy in life! It could be a hobby, an interest, or any activity that you do simply because you like it. No strings attached. Delight can also come from simple moments, like the ones we mentioned above. So explore what brings you delight and incorporate some of it into your daily routine! You deserve it.

How Feeling Delightful Shows Up Mentally

Your mental wellbeing improves when you feel delightful. Shocker, right? But let’s talk about it…because how often do we get to dive thru happy emotions, not just the sad ones? Exactly. Let’s allow some time for introspection here, mmkay? Here are some of the ways feeling delightful can improve your mental health (spoiler alert: they’re pretty awesome):

Lift in mood
Reduced stress and anxiety
Increased attentiveness and focus
Boost in productivity
Spark of creativity
Improved analytical skills
More good thoughts
Increased motivation

When we’re feeling delightful, our brains are in a stress-free zone. Our brains release neurotransmitters called dopamine and serotonin throughout the body when we’re feeling delightfully happy. You can call ‘em the Happy hormones! Overall, they just make us feel more at ease and life is good. But wait, there’s more! Let’s look at the physical symptoms too.

How Feeling Delightful Shows Up Physically

When we’re feeling positively delightful, we’re pretty fuckin’ happy, to say the least. And you wanna know what happiness does to our physical health?! A lot. Ohhh boy, does it ever have great physical benefits! Check ‘em out for yourself:

Reduced cortisol levels
Lower blood pressure
Strengthened immune system
Better sleep
Improved digestion
Reduced pain
Longer lifespan

Yep, you read that right. Happy people live longer, it’s been proven by science! Your body doesn’t go through a shitload of stress when you’re busy being all delightful and stuff, ‘cause it doesn’t have time for that. And when your body isn’t dealing with the burden of stress, it can function how it should. So this is your sign to work some delight into your life, wherever and however you can! Here are some practices for embracing this delightful feeling, in case you could use a lil’ extra help.

5 Ways to Embrace Feeling Delightful

Emotions are fun, aren’t they? Well…maybe not alllll of them. But we gotta say, we’re enjoying diving thru feeling delightful with you. Before you go, we just have a few practices for you to try out when you get the chance! They’ll help you dive thru and embrace your feelings. This isn’t like homework, we promise. Unless you enjoy homework? Either way, give ‘em a go!

1. Journal

Journaling is one of our all-time fave practices for exploring our feels. So, try writing out exactly how you’re feeling and what made you feel this way! Maybe you aced the exam after studying your ass off or got a sick promotion at work. Or it could be something small, like receiving a nice compliment that made you feel all fuzzy inside. Expressing your feelings can give you clarity and feels really great, so jot it all down in detail! Your hand might start to cramp, but so what? 100% worth it.

2. Visualize Your Happy Place

We all have that happy place in our minds. (Ours is Belle’s castle library in Beauty and The Beast!) Whatever your happy place in your mind is, go there! Picturing someplace that makes you feel at peace can help lift your mood and put into perspective what really matters to you. So delightful, right?

3. Practice Gratitude

Showing gratitude for the delightful things that bring us happiness? YES please! Gratitude is simply taking notice of the good things in life and showing them appreciation. That might involve writing a list of things that bring you joy, volunteering in your community, or showing acts of kindness to the people who make your life better. Whatever it may be, gratitude is the gift that keeps on givin’.

4. Connect with a Friend

Wanna know something delightful? Friendship. To quote the Beatles: “I get by with a little help from my friends.” Have any truer words ever been spoken?! We think not. So if you’re feeling delightful, reach out to a friend. Text them, FaceTime them, or ask to hang out. Feeling connected to someone who uplifts you is the shit! They’ll probably be super delighted to hang with you or just have a gab sesh.

5. Meditate

Meditation is a method that’s been used to relieve stress and improve mental clarity since, like…forever. This practice allows us to slowww down and shift our mindset, which is great when you’re feeling not-so-delightful. But when you ARE feeling delightful, guess what? Meditation is still a great option. It’s versatile like that. If you’re not sure how to meditate, follow a guided practice on YouTube to get you started!

Well, we had a delightful time diving thru this feeling with you, friend. In case you didn’t notice, we reallyyyy love talking about our feels around here. So if that’s something you’re into, check out some of our other articles! There are always more emotions to dive thru.