Joyful: The Surprising Power of Ordinary Things to Create Extraordinary Happiness by Ingrid Fetell Lee

​“Every time I go for a walk, I see at least one thing that makes my heart sing.” 

I was trying to explain to a friend why I enjoyed living in Mentone so much. The things I spotted on my walks around town weren’t spectacular. Oh, once in a while I’d catch a glimpse of a hawk diving after its prey or find an owl perched in a neighbor’s tree. But it was usually nothing dramatic. A tiny flower, a puddle with gentle ripples of mud, a caterpillar whose bright green stripes held the promise of beauty that would later emerge from a silky cocoon. 

How could such things make me so happy? 

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Author Ingrid Fetell Lee has answers. As a student in industrial design at the Pratt Institute, she was initially uncertain about the direction her work would take after graduation. But then she noticed the simple power of everyday items to create moments of joy. A well stocked candy store, a bouquet of balloons, a door painted a vibrant shade of blue, a conga line snaking around a wedding venue. How did these trigger joy?

Lee observed, collected, and categorized. Each category suggested an experience or emotion associated with the things. Her final ten categories were: energy, abundance, freedom, harmony, play, surprise, transcendence, magic, celebration, and renewal. She began to conceptualize how people might work these experiences into their daily lives to increase their joy. The result is this book. 

After reading Joyful, I recognized that part of what made me happy on my walks was the lush greenery around me with woods beyond (abundance), the view from the Brow overlooking the valley and Little Ridge with Sand Mountain in the distance (transcendance), the pleasure of running into friends at the post office (harmony), and the leaves’ gradual shift from green to yellow and red before they drift to the ground to clear the way for next year’s growth (renewal). These simple things, for those who pay attention, are heartwarming. They restore us. 

Lee offers examples of happy things and strategies for consciously incorporating them into our lives. Joyful closes with a series of worksheets the reader can follow to plan a more joy-full life. Her website aestheticsofjoy.com has a number of additional resources, including a link to her TED Talk. If you enjoy reading about the study of happiness, this is a wonderful book that will help you better understand how the physical world influences emotions.

You can check out Joyful: The Surprising Power of Ordinary Things to Create Extraordinary Happiness at Moon Lake Library. 


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